


Blonde's doom

by Gloriette_deWentz5



Series: Joe's Brand New Eyes [2]
Category: Ashlee Simpson (Musician), Fall Out Boy, Kelly Clarkson - Fandom, Paramore, Taylor Swift (Musician)
Genre: 'cuz it happens near the school where I studied and it creeps me out, Don't worry, I have a vague idea of what this is about, I'm terrified to say it's kind of inspired on true events, It has to do with kidnapping, It's about kidnapping for sex slave traffic, Like this thing happens a lot and it's terrifying, M/M, which is fucked up but none of that is gonna be graffic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-19
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2018-03-25 04:49:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3797326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gloriette_deWentz5/pseuds/Gloriette_deWentz5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe's life has spun 180 in a matter of days. He's discovered a new power, he's got a new boyfriend, and... a new problem...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Old enemies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY, I'M BACK!  
> And will probably leave you waiting for as long as the last time :v  
> So, here's for you to know I'm not dead nor leaving this thing die just yet ;)  
> Hope you like it and I'll appreciate your patience and comprehension :)
> 
> *If you're a new reader, you may want to go check out the first part of this series, "Andy", in order to understand this one better :)*  
> *UPDATE!!!!*  
> *Okay, if you've already read this, you knew that the first date I put for this was 'April the 10th', BUT that's a HUGE mistake for the plotline. See, I wanted this story to be comprised in their last year of school, like the ENTIRE year; in my country, we start classes in January or February(FOBruary :v), but in the USA-as far as I know- it's September. If this thing begins in April, it doesn't really give me enough time to write all the situations I want(it's a shitload of them), it's not realistic for all of that to happen in like 2 months, I thought about it for really long and it seems super weird. I wrote April 'cause it was very natural to me, it's the beggining of the calendar year and school year, but not in this story's setting, so I'll change it here, and off course it will affect the next episodes.  
> Thank you for reading this note and fic ;)*

"Hayley still hates us, doesn’t she?" asked Patrick when he opened his locker. You don’t need a special gift to know that Hayley can be behind those kinds of things.

"Uh, yes, why?"

'Fat Ass' said in a little paper, written in Hayley’s handwriting, and her favorite pen. That was also known fact, no super powers needed to know it.

"It wasn’t a good idea accusing a big pranker." admitted Pete.

"Well, she was main suspect for being a big pranker, besides, her friend _was_ the guy…" replied Joe taking the paper from Patrick’s hand.

"Hello, dumb, have you already found my little love note?" Red Hair arrived with her other friend Jeremy Davis.

"Yes, but you could’ve been a little more eloquent, Williams" answered Joe sarcastically.

"You’re not crying about it, are you? It’s just a little joke."

"Don’t worry, you won’t be person of interest ever again."

"Glad to hear that, Joe. See you."

"Why do you chat so calmly with her? She’s mean" complained Patrick.

"Well, I don’t want her to go worse, at least with us… things like this are enough, if we know how to deal with them." unconsciously he hugged Andy, who had been quiet and taciturn the whole time. "besides, I was going to tell her that a ball is going to hit her head, but I’m not that sure anymore…"

"Is it?" asked Pete with excitement.

"Yes, come here."

They walked towards the cafeteria and Joe pointed at the girl.

"Three… two… one…"

"FUCK!" she yelled when the soccer ball landed on her nose.

"Oh, man! That was awesome!" said Pete laughing.

"It’s not funny" complained Andy.

"Come on, she’s mean, a little karma is not bad once in a while."

"Now teacher’s gonna tell her off for cursing, and she’s not going to forgive the guy who did it, even when she likes him…"

"Dude, you have one gift, don’t you?"

"It’s still not funny."

"Hey, Andy. I’m gonna tell her next time, okay?" he nodded, but was still upset. "don’t make that face…"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (((Tags say Taylor Swift... I just needed a blonde there, and she'd kind of related to FOB and Paramore, so...  
> And Kelly Clarkson, well, I needed another blonde and I've loved her forever, so yeah, she's there ;) )))


	2. Lady in danger.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something might happen...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello American Beauties! (or wherever you are from :v)  
> See, I just needed to update this like I need air, because I felt horrible thinking that I want the authors I read to update their stories but not doing the same.  
> So here I am, I gotta get up very early tomorrow, but it doesn't matter as long as you get a new chapter, hope it's worth the wait :)

"Hayley, watch out!"

She stopped walking to see Joe, and the motorcycle passed by her side. Everyone around opened their eyes and mouths wide. Jeremy hugged her, all eyes jumped from Joe to Hayley, who was speechless standing on the street. No one saw it coming, the only one who could possibly know was the freak with the weird gift. Hayley didn’t want to feel thankful about it, but it was just impossible.

"Wow… Joe… I…"

"Don’t mind."

Joe and his friends kept on walking as the most normal thing, while all the people around just couldn’t hide their surprise.

"See? I told her, and it was a big thing now."

"Just please don’t make fun of anyone again."

"Promise." he hugged Andy. He still wasn’t sure if it was okay kissing him, even in his head, so he didn’t, although he really wanted to. He wondered what Andy thought about it, because he was rather shy and probably wanted to take things slowly, so he had to control the urgency in his head. Luckily, Pete distracted him from his thoughts.

"Hey, what about going to the mall and wasting the rest of the afternoon?"

"We got homework…" replied Andy, and for a second, he sounded a little more geeky than Patrick.

"Uh, yeah, but that’s the basic idea of 'wasting the afternoon', right?"

"Sorry, I’m not into it, I spent the whole weekend at the hospital and I’m left behind in a lot of stuff. Maybe later."

Joe kinda felt bad for him. No, Joe felt horribly bad for him, because he was a procrastinator himself and found wasting his life unproductively at a mall very appealing, so Andy had no one on his side; he knew his friends: Patrick just loved sleeping anywhere his head would fall on, and Pete loved petting Patrick’s hair as he slept, he also loved bragging to everybody he had “the most wonderful boyfriend on planet Earth”, so he’d use public places for that; homework wasn’t top priority for any of them.

"Then… want me to take you home?" Andy remained quiet for two seconds and then turned to see him for the first time in the whole conversation.

"Well, yeah, I guess, thanks."

"Awesome, see you there, guys."

"Oh, okay" answered Pete and when they were far enough he told Patrick "Honestly, I thought we were all going Andy’s, you know?"

"Pete, that’s silly, they need their time together, don’t you think so? Joe’s never had a boyfriend, and I think it’ll be good for him to spend time with someone different from us, now that he’s found him."

"Hey! What’s wrong with us? We’re cool!"

"I didn’t say that, I mean, think about it, what if they want to kiss or something, or cuddle, or, I don’t know, they’d like some privacy then."

"Logic, but not so, we do it all the time."

"Well, yeah, but that’s us, not them. Andy is shy, he’s like the shiest person I know, I don’t think he’d feel comfortable with that. And now that I say it, I don’t think they feel especially comfortable whenever we do that…"

"Oh, I never thought about it, I just wanted to kiss you… I won’t stop, anyways" he giggled and kissed Patrick’s head.

Joe stopped in front of Andy’s house and his brain was eating itself thinking how he’d say goodbye, or something. He also thought of staying with Andy just sitting in the sofa hugging him, but Andy had to do homework, he’d just be a distraction. He didn’t know what Andy thought of him anymore, maybe he was disappointed, maybe he didn’t like him anymore. Maybe he thought he didn’t want a boyfriend who didn’t do homework. All those thoughts were cut when Andy turned to see him with a smile on his face. Maybe everything was okay between them.

"You know" said Joe without aiming to put any filter to his words "I can call them and tell them I’ll stay with you, we can do homework together." Andy smiled sweetly, like Joe had never seen him before, he just had the most beautiful smile known to humanity.

"You don’t have to…" he said with that smile. He actually felt flattered that Joe would rather spend his afternoon doing homework with him than with his friends in a mall, but at the same time, he felt like he wasn’t good enough, and maybe Joe would find everything boring at the end."It’ll be okay, you can tell me later." he said grabbing his elbow.

"Is it ok?"

"Yes, it’s okay."

"I’ll call you…" as soon as the words abandoned his mouth he realised he didn’t have Andy’s number, well, he hadn’t asked for it "but I’ll need your number for that, I guess" he said blushing and feeling a little stupid. Andy giggled and and grabbed his phone.

"Well, yeah, it’ll be convenient. Sorry, I had to change this thing, I haven’t learnt this new number" **"I know"** , Joe thought feeling a little disappointed of knowing, it had kinda spoiled the sight of Andy’s cuteness.

"So, this is it" he said after checking the phone was correctly copied and there wouldn’t be any problem for texting or calling him. "so… well, see you, I guess."

"Ok…" they stood awkwardly in front of each other and just looked at their feet, at the door, at the stairs… Joe didn’t recognize himself, he was sociable, he could talk to people, he could interact with basically anyone without a problem; but there was him stuck unable to talk to the most harmless guy he knew. He tried to go back to his assured mood, and held Andy’s hand. It was somehow an impulsive move, and he realised it a little late, but the way he lifted his eyes and stared at him blushing made it worthy, because he didn’t expect it, and he loved unexpected. So he felt a little more confident and decided to go for it, he smiled and got closer, closed his eyes and kissed Andy’s forehead. When he pulled away he saw the boy covering his mouth with his hand, red as a traffic light.

"See you tomorrow."

"Yes" was the only thing Andy managed to articulate after that shock. He didn’t think that it would happen to him, not even in his wildest dreams, however, it was happening and the only way his body managed to react was smiling. It felt amazing, but now he had to deal with that feeling AND focusing on homework. His head was a mess, and he could only watch Joe walk away turning to see him every few steps, unable to move and go inside his house until the boy of his dreams was out of sight.

When he got back to his senses, he opened and closed the door in the blink of an eye and stood against it trying to slow down the beating of his heart. Then he started laughing like the biggest idiot on Earth. He just couldn’t stop. He put his hand over his mouth and grinned widely. Joe liked him. Joe REALLY liked him. He couldn’t help but to jump like a toddler in Christmas, and feel stupid as hell. **"Okay, calm down, calm down."** He took a deep breath and headed to his room, sat in the desk and wasted a lot of time before actually getting started with homework.

 

When Joe arrived at the mall, he felt like déjà-vu the moment he saw Patrick and Pete sitting on a table at the food court, they were so predictable it wasn’t even funny.

"Hey, how was your date, Big Smile Boy?" teased Pete as soon as Joe took a seat at their table.

"Date? Come on, I just walked him home…" he said, unable to keep his mouth from smiling wider. He wished he could take Andy on a date.

"Yeah, but you just don’t look like you’ve kissed the love of your life when you just 'walk someone home'"

"How’d you…" Joe began and stopped himself immediately when he saw Pete opening his mouth wide and Patrick lifting his head from the table with an expression in between sleepiness and surprise.

"Fuck, you did!" yelled Pete with amusement. **"You don’t have to scream, you know, right?"** thought Joe feeling like everyone was watching them.

"How did you know?" he completed what he had begun before. He got caught anyways.

"I didn’t, I was just joking around. Aww man, isn’t that sweet? They kissed! You were right, blondie, we didn’t have to go along. Okay, how was it?"

"You know, we didn’t actually kiss…"

"What? Then what the fuck dude?" Pete sounded a little dissapoined, like a little kid.

"I, uhm.. I kissed his forehead before saying goodbye, that’s it."

"Aww, well it’s romantic anyways, isn’t it blondie?" Patrick nodded and put his head back on his arms. "It’s so… Joe? Hello, are you there? Joe?" said Pete snapping his fingers in front of Joe’s eyes.

"Uh, what?"

"Dude seriously, I’m commenting on your fluffy relationship here."

"Sorry, it’s just, that girl" he said pointing at Kelly Clarkson, who was having an ice-cream with some friends.

"Yeah, what’s with her?"

"I don’t know, I feel weird, like, something might happen to her, but I don’t know if it’s good, bad or neutral, you get it?"

"Nope, never got futuristic feeling towards people."

"Pete please" finally spoke Patrick. He had to reprimand Pete constantly for his absent minded speaking, it was always too late, but his boyfriend got the message.

"Seriously, Pete. I get like... a vibe on that, like, there’s something related to her, but I can’t see what."

"Well, it’ll show up, eventually. Do you want something? I feel like spending my money on you, you know, to praise on your first kiss or whatever."

"Who are you, my father?"

"Yup, I’ll be your father from now on, young man. Now order something before I change my mind."

"You’re not a cool dad, it’s all I got to say." replied Patrick tiredly.

"Sure I am! I’m inviting him!"

"Shut up, let’s get some pizza or something."

"Sure as hell you’re my son, Joseph Mark."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, if you don't know yet, I got a new idea and I'd like you to know about it, to tell me what you think and eventually participate.  
> Check it out here: http://archiveofourown.org/series/272271 :D


	3. Queen B...etter not mess up with her.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Girl of the Classic Red Lipstick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is no filling chapter, althought it is far shorter than the previous one. I think it is okay to follow the story and to introduce couple new characters. One of this days I'll get deeper in the plot of this episode I promise; the thing is that recently I begun college and it's soo much work!  
> Hope you understand and forgive my apparent abandoning of this fic.  
> Thnks fr reading so far ;)

"Hi, Joe." Everyone turned to see her with surprise, because in the stupid social hierarchy she had written _herself_ , there was simply no way that Taylor Swift, THE Taylor Swift would be around social misfits and nobodies such as Joe & Co. Plus, her entourage didn’t seem really pleased to be there; except for Ashlee Simpson, who still had a slight crush on Pete, and didn’t seem to mind Patrick’s relationship with him, judging for the way she looked at the black hair guy.

"Uhm… hello Taylor," he stared silently at Queen Bee and her little fake Queen smile. Since she didn’t say anything, he continued "what can I do for you?"

"I want you to read my future." she said in a bossy and arrogant tone.

Pete pretended to be choking on his sandwich, and started “coughing”, Patrick covered his mouth and hid under his hat, Andy simply put his head down and let his hair cover his face, he pretended to be focusing on his food while biting his tongue. Joe simply couldn’t laugh, also, he couldn’t stop his face from turning into a “Really, bitch?” frown. The request was simply stupid. Looking at the face he’d just made, Taylor dropped her smile.

"What’s the problem?" Pete now pretended to be choking on his juice, and turned his face away.

"See, Taylor, it’s not something I can control, you know? Plus, what would you like to know?"

"Anything you can tell me. Come on, I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t trust you."

"Fuck, I spilled my juice! Honey, would you come with me to see if I can clean my jacket?" said Pete when he couldn’t take anymore of Taylor’s bullshit. Patrick nodded quickly and they both headed to the bathroom, where Pete could freely burst in laughter and Patrick would laugh without feeling too guilty about it.

"Well, you’re no doubt gonna be the Prom Queen…"" what would Taylor want to know about her future? “Daddy” could buy it for her; which he actually had, as his senses told Joe; and everyone at school would make sure her dreams came true, even Joe himself, because, who would want to deal with an angry High School Diva?

"Oh yeah, I already know that" she said flipping her blond hair back.

"Well, then I don’t think there’s anything else I can say…"

"Who’s gonna take me to Prom?" she asked seeming a little desperate.

"Uhm… who would you like it to be?"

"Hey! That’s not how this works. Come on, Joe, tell me, or I…"

"It’s really hard to know, Taylor, there’s a bunch of kids here who’ll ask you." he said stating the obvious just to stop her for finishing her Queen Bee threat.

"And the one will be…" Joe sighed softly, closed his eyes, more to beg for patience than to pretend being focused on the task demanded, and after some time, he mumbled,

"Do you wanna go with Roger Daniels?"

"Oh my God! Yes!"

"That’s it, just wait until he asks you, and say 'yes'."

"Well, thank you, Joe. See you later."

They left following Taylor’s steps, and everyone stepped out of their way.

" 'See you later?' Are we so down on our luck?" joked Andy in a barely audible volume with his head still down. Joe giggled and answered,

"Well, so it seems."

"Oh boy, tell me if that wasn’t nerve-wrecking" Pete came back from “cleaning his jacket”, even when nothing had actually happened.

"Well, it was indeed. However, jeesh, I don’t know…"

"Oh, you got that look on your eyes again Joey, what’s up?"

"That’s the thing, I don’t know for sure, but there’s something about her…"

"Yeah, her little nose…"

"About her _future."_  emphasized Joe in a tune that made Pete laugh a little more.

"Oh, Sherlock, calm down. Maybe it’s just the feeling that she’s coming again tomorrow to ask you what color she’s gonna wear to Prom or shit."

"Yeah, that may be it." replied Joe, still not convinced of that. He went back to finish his not-so-long forgotten lunch with some sort of emptiness in his stomach. That wasn’t the kind of feeling at all. It was… like the way he felt that other day about Kelly Clarkson. He couldn’t explain it, but something was gonna happen to Taylor, he still didn’t know if it was good or not, and it was driving him insane.

"But now, do you want my advice?" said Pete as he chewed some of his sandwich "You should swindle her. Like, charge expensive rates for each consultation…"

"I’m not doing that, Pete."

"Come on! It’s not like she can’t pay for it, right? She came with that ‘rich person’ attitude, I bet she goes to fake gipsies’ sessions to know about her fortune."

"That’s true, but if she came to me it’s because she believes I’m not a liar. And I am NOT."

"What the fuck, Joe? You’re getting Swift’s trust? What the fuck for?"

"To be left alone. Plus, I don’t do it for her, it’s more for my own reputation, you know? I don’t want my name to be dirty, and I don’t want to be taken as a cheater. Also, I didn’t ask for this… thing… condition…"

"Fuck, Joe, this is why you are the good guy of the story, right?"

"Well, I try to be." he said with a shrug.

"I think you are." whispered Andy, Pete and Patrick didn’t notice that, and Joe didn’t expect it, so he blushed and smiled, then went back to see if he could finish his lunch at last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG! Tomorrow's Mikey's Birthday!! (it is tomorrow in my hometown :P)  
> Happy birthday Moaikey!! :)
> 
> *Taylor's nose though... there's something about it... :P*


	4. A thousand questions.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gift? A curse? A... what's wrong with you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello dear readers!!  
> I'm really happy to come back and give you a new chapter, I feel really guilty because I should be doing homework, but this is far more interesting to write than essays, so here I am.

"Fuck" whispered Joe to himself when he saw Ashlee Simpson getting closer. He had met her at middle school, and she had all the potential of being the popular kid at High, but somehow Taylor had taken control and Ashlee was reduced to one of her little servants.

"Uhm, Joe?" Seriously, where had the confident girl gone? Pete’s #1 female fan seemed more eloquent back then.

"Yes?"

"Taylor asked me to bring you this…" she handed him a little paper and he received it reluctantly.

"So, she couldn’t just come…"

"Uh, she’s busy…"

"I imagine." he unfolded the paper with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

 

_Will I be invited to Margaret’s party?_

 

Joe had no freaking idea of who the fuck was Margaret, but apparently she was important enough for Taylor to ask such a stupid question to someone like him. Joe closed his eyes and thought about that girl. As he had practiced, he touched the name written on the paper, then he saw, no doubt, Taylor receiving a letter for that. And somehow, he looked a little further. Then he grabbed his pen and wrote:

 

_You will, but you better study before going, or you’re gonna fail your math exam._

 

Then he returned Ashlee the letter, expecting her to leave. But, since he could read the future, he saw she wasn’t going to. She had a question of her own. **Crap, really?**

"I… uh, see I..."

"You want to ask me something." she opened her eyes and blushed. **Are you really aware of who are you talking to?** Because, if she was going to ask the question, she could have at least expected him to know in advance...

"Yes. See, my aunt is making a trip, but the region she’s going to has climate warnings and stuff. I’d like to know if she’ll be okay."

Joe was a little taken off guard by such a question. If there was something he didn’t expect, or he wouldn’t have imagined is that any of Taylor’s friends would ask something so selfless, maybe he just couldn’t “see” it all. He held her hand, and she panicked a little, but she let him do it. He felt something deep in his heart that wanted to make the reading as accurate as possible. Ashlee wasn’t a bad girl actually.

"You don’t have to worry, she’ll be alright. She’ll write you as soon as she arrives."

"Wow, thank you!" she said with a sweet smile. He still had her hand between his fingers, and something begun feeling weird, but before the feeling grew deeper, she took it away. "Bye, guys. Pete." she addressed to him with a little smile.

"Simpson" he answered while resting his head on Patrick’s shoulder. The girl walked away immediately after seeing that and Pete giggled.

"Doesn’t it bother you that she looks at Pete like that?" asked Andy trying to be smooth.

"Well, you see…" begun Patrick, but then he was cut by his boyfriend who said

"Yes! One of these days he’s gonna break her nose while screaming: 'He’s mine, bitch!'"

"Pete! No, I… I wouldn’t… I don’t, Pete!" his cheeks turned a brighter shade of red with each word, Pete laughed and kissed his head. "I mean, I don’t like it, but it’s not like I have any rivals with him, so, it bothers me, but I can live with it."

"Oh, I see. Joe? What’s wrong?" Trohman was still rubbing his fingers and looked at them with big concern.

"Ashlee…"

"You got that feeling again?" asked Andy trying to be a support for Joe, since he was, well, his boyfriend, right?

"Well, yeah, I don’t like it, with Clarkson and Taylor it seemed like something neutral, but now it does feel like something bad."

"Don’t tell me you said that thing about her aunt to make her feel at ease" said Patrick disapprovingly.

"What?! No! That was true, it’s not about her aunt, it’s about _her_."

"How dare you saying that, Blondie" said Pete in a mocking tone, Patrick nudged him with a pout on his lips and they smiled.

"Maybe it’s not something actually dangerous," said Joe trying to ease his thoughts, not getting too wild about it, "I just hope this doesn’t turn into a habit."

"This what?" asked Pete as he played with Patrick’s hair.

"This consultation thing. I hope no one else comes to ask me stuff, I’d be really uncomfortable."

"Joe, I love you, but seriously no one would want to talk to you, you’re a nobody, their social position would be at risk, or whatever the fuck happens in this school."

"Well yeah, I know that, but Taylor Swift just happened to ignore that. If _she_ does it, then it means it is okay to do it, because apparently most people here don’t have ideas of their own and just follow whatever she does to pretend they’re 'cool'," he made air quotation marks and used a ‘dumb’ voice with that last word, and Andy giggled, for some reason.

"Ohh, I see your point there."

"Why can’t you just say you don’t want to do it? Pete, I love you, but I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t pinch my cheek when I’m trying to speak." said Patrick in a serious tone and Pete stopped, apparently it was a clear warning of something that not Joe nor Andy knew about.

"Uh…" Joe always had a hard time trying to get words after something like that happened, but it was even harder now, because yeah, why couldn’t he simply say no? "I don’t know, I just don’t like arguing with people, I don’t want them to go like ‘It’s a favor, why don’t you do it?’, or ‘Then Taylor can ask you, but no one else can?’. I don’t know, I just don’t want any of this, I have enough with Frank behind my back looking at me like I’m a lab rat. Seriously, I think one of these days he’s gonna sedate me and open my skull with his bare hands."

"That’s a horrible visual Joe, gross." said Pete with a frown.

"But it makes sense," replied Andy "well, not the thing about Frank, the thing about the other kids, like, they’ll see Joe as a toy or something."

"Well, I’ve already given Joe a solution and he won’t hear me. Charge for it, expensive rates. You don’t have to lie, if that’s what bothers you, but if they can’t pay for it, then they won’t come as easy…"

"It’s just… agh! I don’t wanna think about it anymore, okay?" luckily, he was saved by the ring and Andy and him parted ways with the other two.

They had class together, and in the way to the classroom Hurley felt like he had to bring the subject again, just to give Joe some more advice. However, he got the feeling that Joe would get mad about it, and all of a sudden he felt really uncomfortable on what to say, or if he even had to say something. Maybe it was better if he didn’t talk at all. His arms were crossed against his chest and he was looking to the ground. He was suddenly stopped by someone’s hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see it was Joe’s.

"Andy, what’s wrong?" he could see the concern in Joe’s eyes through the strands of his hair.

"Uh? Oh, no, nothing, it’s just… no, nothing, don’t mind."

"You sure?" Joe felt sorta guilty about it, but he just couldn’t help but to worry big time: Andy was suicidal. **Or, he is, like, at this precise moment? Is he depressed or something?** Joe read the future, not the emotions, he couldn’t know how Andy felt, and apparently Andy wasn’t planning on telling him. So he was just mentally crossing his fingers that it wouldn’t be something related to self-harm.

"Yes" he answered absentmindedly and entered the classroom. He felt silly when he noticed he was about to walk beyond it and probably miss it. Maybe Joe would think he was dumb.

"Okay." he sat next to Andy wondering what was wrong. He stared at him as they waited for the teacher to arrive. Andy noticed it and met his eyes. When he saw that Joe was really concerned he smiled and turned to the board when the teacher walked in.

Joe felt they’d have to talk about it later, but now that Andy was smiling, he became a little more calm about it and went back to the girls. Something was gonna happen to those girls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think so far, I'd really like to read your comments :)


	5. Questions, meddling and intimacy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Questions and answers. Problems and solutions. Public and private life. Decisions and orders. Seriousness and fluff. Rat and Tat :v

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! How's ficland doing? Have you missed me? 'Cuz I've missed you :v  
> I took a hell lot to write this, but I hope you'll be able to forgive the long time between the previous chapter and this one, but I wrote a lot (it is far longer than the other chapters in this one) so I hope it compensates the time lost between us :P  
> Hope you like it and let me know what you think so far! :)

"Oh crap," mumbled Joe when he heard his name being called from the other side of the hall. It was a masculine voice, so luckily it wasn't Taylor with her bullshit. Instead it was something worse -if such thing existed in that school. Anthony "The Tank" Dawson, quarterback, captain of the team, a huge guy who made fun of basically anyone, himself and Andy included. Put simple, a living, breathing acting screenplay cliché; the annoying kind, to make it worse. It wasn't hard for him to catch up with them, but the fact that he had to do it reflected how much Joe wanted to avoid him.

"Hey Joseph, it ain't nice ignoring people when they call you."

"Well, I got places to go, I gotta keep walking, you know? What do you want?"

"Is that the way to talk to an old friend?"

Joe felt even more pissed with that comment, because he always called Andy "four eyes" and Joe had heard him calling them "The new fags of school" in the dressing room once.

"Just ask your question and leave me alone."

"Aw, come on, a little small talk won’t hurt, right?" Joe just sighed heavily and said

"Hey, Anthony, how are you? Are you up to asking a question regarding your future, ‘cuz coincidentally I can read it! Then go ahead, ask your question and leave me alone."

"Okay, now that you insist. There will be this awesome party at Margaret’s and… do you even know Margaret?"

"Does it even matter?" he asked feeling even more pissed off than before.

"Yeah, whatever, so I wanted to know…"

"If you’ll be invited?" **Just like Queen Bee...**  "if you are, I recommend you not drinking too much…"

"I didn’t ask you about what I’m gonna do there, ‘cuz I know it, right?"

"I just thought it may be some good advice, since that can cost you your place in the team, you know, failing exams and stuff."

"Are you giving me some moral lecture I didn’t ask for?"

"Maybe, but you’re asking me about a stupid party I don’t care about, given by someone I don’t know nor want to know."

"Jeez, you have a really bad temper, are you lacking..."

"Yes, you will be invited to Margaret's famous party, and no, Jennifer won't go with you because she thinks you're a jerk, plus, you'll drink so much you won't remember your own name, that resulting in failing two exams the next day and being kicked out of the team; okay? Okay, that's it, bye."

He left Anthony standing in the middle of the hall with an idiotic expression of surprise, and walked faster to disappear before the jerk would notice. He really didn't want Andy to hear him comment on their lack of sex, because not only it wasn't his business, but it would make Andy really uncomfortable.

"Ugh, I hate him" he groaned when they met Pete and Patrick.

"Who?" asked the blond with curiosity

"Anthony, he's like, the biggest jerk I know."

"Oh, I see. Well..." began Pete in a weird tone. "well, guys, you see, you're really cool, and you're our friends, and I'm not saying I don't like hanging with you guys, but..."

"Pete, can you freaking get to your point?" asked Joe feeling annoyed. It wasn't Pete's fault, though, he was still rather upset with Anthony.

"Today's our anniversary" answered Patrick sweetly "so we're gonna do something special..."

"That you don't need to know about."

"Pete, let me finish..."

"Don't worry guys, I know what you mean. See you later."

"Wow Joe, it's a relief that you can read the future."

"Well, when Patrick said 'anniversary' it was clear enough, you know?"

"Oh, I see. Well, that's it, see you tomorrow."

With that, they all waved and parted ways. Joe was trying to make it a habit out of walking Andy home. Sure thing they could take the bus, it was easier and faster, but this was somehow more intimate, they could talk and get to know each other better, and didn't have nosy people overhearing their conversation all the road. Andy held Joe's elbow and they began walking, then he said

"They're funny, I don't see why Pete tried to hide what they were going to do, it's not like they are really conservative when it comes to showing what they do."

Joe smirked, but that reminded him of Anthony's remark of his own intimacy and he felt upset again, Andy noticed it and immediately felt like he had crossed a line, like he shouldn't have said it.

He made Joe mad, just what he didn't want. But then Joe noticed it and said

"Yeah, you're right, they don't really have a sense of privacy."

"Uhmm, are you angry, Joe?"

"What? Not with you, it was Anthony, he was driving me insane." Andy thought that moment was appropriate for telling Joe what he thought about that issue, so he crossed his fingers and wished for the best.

"You know, it’s not like you _have to_ do it just because they tell you. I mean, it can be a favor, but sometimes you don’t need to know what’s gonna happen, or you don’t even care. And I don’t think they have the kind of question that’ll make you call the cops, so I think you should just tell them that you don’t want to do it, if it’s not about something actually important, like if someone’s life depended on it."

Joe turned to look at him, and found that wary look in his eyes, like a scared bunny. A bunny. It suited him, Joe thought, it was such a cute view he couldn’t help but to smile.

"Well, that’s one really good point, you know, I’ll tell them that next time." Andy felt the pressure on his chest abandoning him and smiled. "But, you know what? It’s a relief that they only know I can read the future, if they knew I read the past, it’ll be ten times worse, "they giggled and Joe continued talking, "besides, as you said, I don’t think they’ll ask anything interest…"

"Joseph." called a deep voice they both knew well. But what made Joe jump wasn’t Frank’s voice, it was the fact that he had his hand on Joe’s head, and his fingers felt like claws. He turned to see him and saw the evil smirk on Frank’s lips. "How you doin’?"

"Erm, fine, I guess, what do you want?"

"I don’t know, you tell me, "he said in a playful tone and Joe knew what Frank meant. **“Read what I’m about to say”** , it was an exercise they did when Joe asked him for help to learn how to control the thing. Sometimes Joe regretted with all his heart having going to Frank, this, for example was one of those times.

"You got someone to cat-scan my brain while doing a prediction?!" he felt scared. "How did you do it?!"

"I know people," answered Frank nonchalantly, letting Joe’s head go and walking in front of them, "so, tell me when you can do it and I’ll arrange an appointment with that person." He looked at both of them, and when his eyes fell on Andy, he seemed pretty interested in him. As he walked towards him with his frightening curious expression, Andy grew uncomfortable and looked like a bunny again. "Hey," he said with a lot of interest, "so you were the direct implied subject in his first prediction, right?" he grabbed Andy’s chin with his fingers and that made the second one shiver, his eyes were piercing and his smile was disturbing, "tell me, how does it feel? do you feel anything strange? any weird sensation?" he made Andy’s head move as if to examine him better. Joe put his fingers softly under Frank’s wrist and put it away.

"Shouldn’t you also know that? You were in the vision as well, you know? Why don’t you examine yourself?" Frank turned very serious and for a second, Joe thought he looked even creepier.

"Watch your mouth, Joseph, I also have an overprotective boyfriend," he said referring to Gerard, who was standing right next to him. Now, if Frank was scary, Gerard was twice as scary, because he was way taller than Joe. With that, he felt afraid of what could happen to him, but Frank smiled and touched Gerard’s jawline "He’s menacing, isn’t he?" Gerard… smiled. Smiled? No, that was an evil smirk, yeah, Gerard was smirking like the ghost he was…

In that moment, someone called Andy, and he turned to see as Joe kept talking with Frank. It was Ryan Ross.

"Hey, Ryan, long time no see."

"Yeah, it’s been a while. Hey, did you come to math I had to skip it because I’m sorta sick and I need the notes from today."

"Yes, let me get the notebook."

"Thanks," Ryan answered with a smile. "So," he said in a lower volume, "you did it."

"What?" replied Andy feeling really confused. Then Ryan pointed at Joe with his head. Andy now understood, and he blushed. "Yeah, it was a little hard. I almost died." Ryan chuckled "but, yeah, I did it."

"I’m happy for you. Oh, I have a weird question, how do you ask a girl called Sarah to prom?"

"Uh… well, even if I was into girls, I have no experience in the matter whatsoever. Plus, how can I know only by hearing her name?"

"That’s stupid, isn’t it? I told Brendon, but he wouldn’t listen."

"But, does he even know her?"

"I guess, but he says he ‘can’t talk to her, she’s a goddess, Ryan’; gosh, it’s just a girl, and what’s the big fuss about it? He can just ask the question, they both speak English, so I see nothing to stop him." they both chuckled and heard loud footsteps from someone running towards them.

"JOE!!" yelled Brendon as he got closer. Frank looked at him with anger because he was interrupting his chat with Joe, and Joe… well, he knew exactly what to expect.

"Yes, Brendon?" he didn’t hate Brendon, but he knew the guy came with a stupid question, and he would answer because Brendon was cool, but he was done with it. Bren would be the fourth person now during the afternoon and Joe didn’t want to do this anymore.

"I know this is gonna sound stupid, but can you please, please, please tell me if Sarah Orzechowski is coming with me to prom?"

Frank huffed loudly and rolled his eyes. Joe just stood there trying to see Brendon and Sarah at prom, but nothing came. Then he tried with Brendon asking her and she saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but again, it was blank.

"Uh, are you even planning on telling her?"

"I can’t! it’s too difficult, it has to be something big and really good, but I don’t know what she likes; also I’m afraid that she’ll reject me. That’s why I came to you, to see if it is worth the pain." Joe blinked emptily at him and Frank groaned softly.

"Well, if you are not going to ask her, there is no way I can see what would happen, because that event won’t ever take place..."

"OH, MAGIC!" said Brendon lifting his arms dramatically "WHY ARE YOU SO CRUEL, WITH YOUR RULES AND YOUR PROHIBITIONS?!"

"MAGIC?!" snapped Frank loudly "Magic, you say? This, sir, is science, no tricks behind it, there is a scientific explanation to this kind of phenomena, and I’m going to discover it" he started walking away from them with Gerard following him "I’m gonna cat-scan him!"

"Uh, I didn’t say yes!" yelled Joe at Frank’s back. Apparently the guy was resolved, Joe wished he didn’t have to face that situation.

He turned to see Brendon holding his head hopelessly, he wished he could do something for the guy, he really did, but in that moment, it was impossible.

"Sorry Bren, but I won’t have a vision on the matter if you don’t decide to go ask her."

"Ugh! Life is cruel."

"Boy, you just have to decide it, and picture what it would be like. If you are resolved to do it, i might have an answer for you later, okay?" Brendon frowned but finally answered:

"Fine, I’ll see what I can do. Thanks anyway."

With that, Ryan waved them goodbye, winking at Andy and following behind Brendon.

"Apparently now you’re a guinea pig..." mocked Andy when Joe put his arms around his shoulders and they resumed their walking. Joe chuckled at that remark and it made him forget the anger he had.

"So it seems. Geez, he’s helpful, I can’t deny it, but he’s so annoying sometimes…"

"It couldn’t be perfect, I guess…"

"Yeah…"

They kept walking in some sort of comfortable silence. Andy felt a little awkward, because Joe’s touch felt amazing, and it was wonderful finally having him so close, but somehow he felt he needed to talk to him, perhaps Andy seemed boring? Maybe Joe wanted to know him better, and he was there just silent? He didn’t realize that they’d been walking so long that missed Andy’s street.

"Ow…" he whispered.

"What happened?"

"Well, we walked past my house, it seems."

"Pff, did we? Haha" Joe’s laughter was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard, "well, we got to go all the way back, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Or maybe… we can hang around somewhere, what do you think?"

Andy thought he had homework. Yes, it was due next week, but if he did it earlier it would be much better. However, he wanted to spend some time with Joe, so he said to himself that it was okay and homework could wait a little more.

"I think it’s perfect." he answered with a smile.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Rat and Tat, why not? :P  
> **And, this is a little note I wrote in another one of my fics (you should go check it out-just sayin'-*winks*)  
> I was just thinking, if I ever opened a facebook page for my fics, would you like it and stuff?  
> I feel like sharing stuff, but if I won't get any audience, then why bother?  
> Also it would be better, so you don't have to read such long notes. Frankly, notes seem longer that the chapter itself XD  
> Honestly, you should comment on this one, pls nd thnks (fr th mmrs :v hahahaha -so fuckin' lame...- -I don't have a fuckin' life :B -) :P


	6. I know I'm supposed to love you...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If the atmosphere is too pink, check twice...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello babiezz!! I'm just trying to make up for the time lost between us with a long chapter... again :v :3  
> Hope you like it, 'cuz I've worked really hard on it (which means I sat in front of my screen staring like an idiot trying to figure out what to write... :P)  
> I attempted somewhat of SMS writing here, but it's not completely SMS-ish because I'm still sort of a grammar nazi and don't know much about(classic cars :v) SMS slang anyways; so yeah, it's like "half of this is well written 'cuz GOD, MY EYES!" :P

They got to a little café couple squares from Andy’s house, and there they sat awkwardly until the waiter took their orders.

"Uhm, coffee, just, black coffee." said Andy in a soft voice.

"Anything else?"

"No, thank you."

"Same here, thanks" said Joe and the waiter nodded and left. When the man turned around Joe looked at Andy.

"Seriously?"

"Uh? Yeah, I doubt they have anything vegan in here."

"I see. So, for how long have you been vegan?"

"When I turned fifteen. A friend back at Milwaukee showed me how they treats animals for producing everything, it was shocking, I hated it, it was disturbing to see how humans can be so unnecessarily violent, it’s disgusting." He made a face and Joe though his passion about the topic was amazing, he was such a smart kid.

"Wow, that’s really interesting. Anything else I have to know about you?" said Joe showing genuine interest.

"Oh, well," he said tucking a strand of hair behind his ear, and blushing softly, as he looked at the table; then he looked back at Joe and said "I work out, like, last year or so, I… uhm… yeah, I started working out, like, crossfit and stuff." He then bit his lip and looked back at the table.

"Wow…" was the only thing Joe got to say, his smile just wouldn’t let him. He started to imagine how Andy looked while working out, focused on what he was doing, his muscles stretching and… he had to stop himself when Andy turned to look at him, fire burned in his cheeks and he cleared his throat "that’s great." Andy smiled.

"How about you?"

"How about me? I’m a lazy ass." Andy giggled loudly, covering his mouth with his hands. "I am!" repeated Joe, just to see him laugh again. He loved it, it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. "I don’t work out, but I play the guitar."

"I know…"

"Uh?" asked Joe, and Andy looked to the table again.

"I mean, I know ‘cause I have seen you play, in the music room, couple times… yeah… and you gave me that pick back then so..."

"Oh, alright. Do you play any instrument?"

"Me? Well, me, obviously," they both giggled and Andy played with his hair again. "yeah, I play the sax, but more recently the drums."

"Cool! You have to show me, one of these days."

"Oh, yeah, maybe…"

The waitor came back with the cups and then left them. They sipped at their cups and remained silent for a while. It was a little hard to look at each other, but it wasn’t uncomfortable, it was weird but they felt alright, they were just a little nervous. Joe didn’t know how to talk to Andy, he could talk to every single kid at school, even Anthony, hell, even Taylor Swift, but not Andy, he couldn’t find the words. He didn’t know how to talk to him without looking like an idiot, and since the guy didn’t really show his emotions, it was really hard to know how the conversation was going. Suddenly, he found a question, he felt ridiculous, they were dating, they shouldn’t be small talking, however, it was his only resource.

"So, besides working out and music, what do you do like to do on your free time?"

"Reading, uhm, watching movies…"

"Party hard?" Andy snored and then laughed.

"What? No! Haha, That’s not my thing."

"No parties for you?"

"No parties whatsoever."

"Not even school parties?"

"Oh, god! Especially not school parties."

"So… no homecoming, no prom?" asked Joe, trying not so sound as disappointed as he was, once he had daydreamed about taking him to prom or shit, he looked really good in a suit; Joe wasn’t especially happy of the way he had found out, but he wanted to change the circumstances to see Andy all dressed up.

"No," replied Andy with resolution, "that’s not my environment, and, do you know what they do to guys like me in parties?"

"I don’t, what can that be?"

"Mmm, let’s see," he said and made a hard-thinking face, "pour blood on our heads?"

"Blood? What’s your name? Andy White?" he said with a soft chuckle, and Andy joined right away.

"Maybe, you know how much people at school love me…" he said absentmindedly as he sipped his coffee and tucked his hair behind his ear. That made Joe’s heart heavy, he didn’t like they way Andy felt in that stupid school, it was so bad, it made him dizzy. No. That couldn’t be it. It was a vision, it was the dizziness that came before a vision. But no image came. Either way, he felt the need of looking to his right, through the window.

"Ashlee?" he asked when he saw the girl walking on her own in front of the café.

"Oh, she lives around here, her mother owns a little beauty salon. Once my mother needed a haircut and I went with, and there was also Taylor, who thought she could get some special treatment or discount or whatever, and when she didn’t get it she started badmouthing everyone and saying it was a bad place. I hate her."

"Wow." Joe replied softly. Then he turned back to see the the girl again. The dizziness returned and he had to close his eyes, maybe if he got images in his head the sensation would subside, but it didn’t happen.

"Are you alright?" asked Andy gently putting a hand on Joe’s elbow.

"No…" he slowly opened his eyes "I need to see something." He said when she disappeared from view and the dizziness left. "I can’t stand getting this horrible sensation that something wrong’s gonna happen and not see even a small clue of what it could be."

Andy didn’t say a thing, because he didn’t understand in the slightest, but he nodded. They remained silent for a while. Andy really wished there was something he could do, but he didn’t know anything about it; now, granted, many scientists and neurologists and people like that didn’t know how to explain that kind of things, some didn’t even believe it; but he really wished he had some clues about it, like Frank, for example. Frank knew a big deal about weird things, and he could help Joe, but Andy didn’t. For a second he felt useless and jealous and thought that maybe it would have been better if Joe hadn’t saved him at all. What could he do for him...?

"What’s wrong?" asked Joe and only then Andy realised how tight he was holding his cup.

"Uh? nothing…"

"Sure? You know you can tell me anything."

"Yeah, but it’s actually nothing."

"Alright." Said Joe not really convinced of it, "So, we’re not going to prom…"

"You’re not?" asked Andy really surprised.

"Uh, no, if you’re not going then who’s coming with me?" Andy blushed and shrugged his most recent thoughts off his head, what the heck was he thinking about? Joe liked him, off course.

"Well, I don’t know, your friends or something…" now, if he had felt useless couple seconds ago, he felt stupid in this very same second.

"Nah, I don’t think they’d pay me much attention then."

"... I see…"

"What _is_ wrong, Andy?"

"Nothing, I just, I wanna go back home now…"

"Oh, ok…" said Joe feeling weird, "wait here, I’ll pay for this…"

"Okay."

Andy sat there feeling like the biggest idiot on Earth, he might have ruined everything he’d gotten by now, **“can I do anything right?”** he sighed heavily and stood slowly as Joe approached to the table. They walked out of the café in silence, and kept the walk to Andy’s home the same way.

As soon as they saw the front porch, Andy’s stomach turned, that was gonna be a hell of an awkward farewell. He stood in front of his door trying not to look at Joe, he was too ashamed, he did that by busying himself with the keys. He was so focused on that, he jumped when Joe touched his hand. He looked at him with that scared bunny eyes Joe found so cute. Joe got closer to him and he flinched.

"See you tomorrow." Joe said and Andy couldn’t react to nod, instead, he was taken aback by Joe’s kiss on his cheek. When he pulled away, he fixated his eyes on Andy’s and the boy just lost control of his mind, he paralyzed. "Have a good rest of the afternoon, okay?" he said sweetly and Andy could at last nod softly. "And really, if there’s something wrong, tell me, okay?" Andy nodded again feeling a little guilty.

Joe caressed his cheek and smiled. He kissed him again and started to walk away. Andy stood there looking in his direction, then slowly came back to his senses and opened the door to his house. Once he was in, he locked it behind him and let his body slide against it. he was so mad at himself. Joe must hate him by now, he was just too polite to say it right now; but Andy had been nerve wrecking in the last minutes, being all jealous and quiet and ruining the date. Fuck, it was his first date with Joe and he had fucking ruined it. He walked to his room with the head down, feeling his feet weighing tons, he dropped the backpack on the floor without a care and collapsed on his bed, then he groaned into the mattress and cried a little. Couldn’t he do a fucking thing right?!

Joe walked with his head down all the way back home, thinking why Andy had been so weird, was it something he had said? The mood seemed so light, and they were having a good time, he didn’t understand why all of the sudden Andy went so upset. He got to his house and turned his computer on and found Pete on facebook.

_Sup?_

**_Hey, Joe._ **

_Man, do you think I’m rude or something??_

**_Uhh… dafuq is that question? off course you’re not_ **

_Well, I thought so, but I was with Andy and suddenly he got all weird like he was mad at something, but idk what is was…_

**_Aww man! you went on a fakin date!!!_ **

_Pay attention to what I’m telling you!_

**_Wut? yeah right, he was weird… :/_ **

**_idk, the dude’s really hard to read, you know? As he never speaks and stuff…_ **

**_Blondie’s asking if you asked him wut happened_ **

_Off course I did, but he wouldn’t tell me, he said it was nothing…_

**_Hmmm…_ **

**_Blondie’s gonna call him_ **

_What?! NO!!_

_He can’t know I go all around telling people what happens between us!_

**_But we’re buddies!!!_ **

_Well yeah, but I guess he’d wanted me to keep this to myself??_

**_Then why did you tell me in the 1st place?_ **

_Well, right now, idk ¬¬_

**_Hey, chill out, I’m not that bad…_ **

**_Hey! did you hear the news??_ **

_Uhh nope, what news??_

**_A group of girls from that classy school next to the library are missing_ **

_Rly??_

**_Yeah, like for a week or so, weird, huh?_ **

**_have you gotten any vision about it?_ **

_No, I didn’t know about that_

The cops didn’t call him either, maybe because it wasn’t Detective Roland’s jurisdiction and since he was the only one who believed in Joe, nobody else would think of calling him.

**_Bro, Andy’s talking to Trick_ **

_Rly?! what’s he saying??_

**_“Please don’t tell anyone”_ **

_¬¬ dude…_

**_srry!! i didn’t know that was gonna happen!_ **

_guess I’d have to figure out myself…_

**_yup_ **

**_hold a sec, you did call him when you got home, right?_ **

_… nope, did i have to??_

**_Gosh! you’re infuriatingly stupid!!!!_ **

_Well sorry, i haven’t had a boyfriend during 4 years!!_

_plus i thought he was mad at me…_

**_well, you got a point there_ **

**_rly tho, you should at least text him, so he knows you’re fine_ **

_he didn’t ask me, really dude, i think he was mad at me_

**_you’re hopeless, I’ll ask Blondie to tell him since you’re unable to ¬¬_ **

_fuck you ¬¬_

**_you too :P_ **

On the other side, Pete was bitting his lip trying not to take the phone from Patrick’s hands and read everything, curiosity was consuming his guts. Meanwhile, Patrick stared firmly at the screen like he was thinking reaally hard, then sighed and typed

_I dun think he hates u_

**_idk Patrick, or… maybe he just pities me?_ **

Patrick felt like asking Pete about it, but he knew his boyfriend wouldn’t keep his mouth shut, so just stared at his screen for a little longer.

"What is it, honey boy?" asked Pete when he couldn’t resist any longer, even if it hadn’t taken more than two whole minutes.

"Well… he’s just asking questions."

"Like what?"

"Baby, I told you he asked me not to tell…"

"I know! But maybe I could help…" Patrick raised an eyebrow at him and Pete stared back with puppy eyes; Stump had grown resistant to it, because he always ended up with ridiculous things happening around him; he negotiated with himself and decided to modify the question in order to get an opinion without spilling everything.

"When you see Joe, what do you think he feels about Andy?"

"Oh… I don’t know, "he stared at the ceiling for a while and bit his finger, "well, he doesn’t know how to be around him, and he loses all confidence, like he goes all stupid, have you seen him, Blondie? hahaha, it’s soo funny"

"Yeah Pete, but…"

"Oh, uh, well, that’s pretty much it; he likes the guy, but doesn’t know what to do with himself."

"You think he really likes Andy, I mean, you can get that vibe from him…"

"Yeah… HOLY SHIT!! IS THAT THE PROBLEM?!"

"Shut up!! I didn’t tell you anything, okay?"

"But Patrick!!"

"Hush! Don’t tell Joe."

"Oh man, that’s gonna be sooo hard..."

"For me?" Patrick batted his lashes the way he did when he needed something special from Pete, and 90% of the time it was keeping that freaking mouth shut. It was pretty effective since Pete’s whole life revolved around being Patrick’s boyfriend, and being as good as he can, which included doing pretty much everything he was requested when his childish mind allowed it.

"Okay," he answered biting his lip with a stupid smile, "kiss me?"

"What for?"

"For being obedient…"

"If only you were that all the time…" the blond answered shaking his head, but did it anyway. Then he typed the answer to Andy.

_he likes u, he just doesn’t know what to do cuz he’s never had a bf_

**_but… do u think he pities me?_ **

**_u know, for the whole suicide thing…_ **

That was something Pete had already said when the thing happened, and he felt really bad that the possibility of Andy thinking it became real. But he couldn’t ask Pete that question, the last one had already been too revealing of what the matter was, so he had to figure it out himself.

"Any other question I can help solving?" asked Pete looking at Patrick with complete concentration.

"Uh? No, it’s fine."

"Sure?"

"Yup. Joe’s talking to you, you should answer."

"Oh crap! I had forgotten about him."

He resumed his conversation with Joe and let Patrick to think of an answer. It sure looked weird as heck that Joe would be interested in him just because of the murder thing, when Andy had had that crush on him for who knows how long; like, why couldn’t have Joe seen Andy before, if they had studied in the same grade for the same amount of time? But Patrick knew Joe, he was an honest guy. Like for example, if the vision had been with anyone else, maybe he would just have solved the case and forgotten about it, instead he got really interested in Andy, and Joe wasn’t the guy to show interest in other guys, he was not the easy crush “I fall for freaking everything male”, so it had to be real. Patrick decided it was the best answer and wrote it to Andy, hoping it would solve the case.

Sitting on his bed, Andy read that with a smile, feeling extremely flattered. Then he really _was_ someone special in Joe’s life. He had never seen Joe with a boyfriend or date, but he supposed that was because _“she”_ studied in some other school or something like that, and he didn’t want to be a creepy stalker, so he wouldn’t follow him around to figure out. But it was real, Joe was with Andy because he liked him. He felt his heart flutter at the thought of being the one to have awaken a real interest in Joe; then it broke: he’d been jealous out of nowhere, of _Frank_ out of all people, _Frank the Creep Iero, Frank who already had a boyfriend himself, Frank who scared the shit out of Joe and wanted to play experiments on him._  He’d doubted Joe for no reason. His smile fell and being barely able to hold the phone in his hands, he wrote Patrick.

 **_do u think he’d find me stupid for being jealous for no reason?_ ** **_  
_ **

He had decided against mentioning Frank’s name, it was too awkward already, talking to someone he’d just met. Lately, they’d been hanging together for long periods of time, and Patrick was honest, mature and down to Earth, so Andy trusted him; however, they hadn’t been friends for quite that long. If there was someone Andy considered a closer friend at that school it would be Ryan, the first to know about Andy’s sexuality and crush on Joe, but they had grown distant ever since he started hanging more with Brendon, it had something to do with Andy’s self-esteem, more than anything, because he felt like he wasn’t as cool as Brendon and Ryan would always prefer hanging with him; that was not true and Ryan confirmed it later, but he still felt really awkward around someone as outgoing and explosive as Brendon, so he grew distant. He also felt bad for that, and then thought things would be different if he still had Ryan as close as before to talk about things like this. But then he thought it wasn’t especially ideal, since Ryan didn’t really know Joe, and couldn’t give him a better opinion. He just sat there regretting everything he’d done in his life as he did on a daily basis as he waited for Patrick’s answer.

_ not stupid, he’d never think that of u _

_ maybe he’d find it weird, but not stupid _

_ why is that? _

He didn’t want to answer, it was too embarrassing.

**_nothing special, really_ **

Patrick got the clue and stopped asking. Pete called him and he looked at the conversation box.

_ dude, i searched for those news you told me about, it freaks me out, i got a premonition feeling, but the fuckers haven’t come in like two days _

**_??_ **

_ i feel like something is going to happen, and go all dizzy and shit, but i can’t see a fuck _

_ and as i read bout those girls, i felt like i know what happened to them, but i can’t see a damn picture _

**_wow, that was rather swear-y, imo_ **

_ i’m frustrated, that’s why _

**_uh yeah_ **

**_Andy says he’s not mad at u and he’s glad u got home ok_ **

**_he didn’t call u cuz he thought u were mad at him, u’re so meant to b, rite?_ **

_ stfu _

_ has he said anything else?? _

**_idk, if he has I can’t know, Blondie won’t let me read._ **

_ :/ ok _  
He sat there thinking about those two problems in his hands: on one side, he had the fucking premonitions that never came but gave him tachycardia and dizziness, the mystery of the girls and the possibility of calling Little Mr. Freak to see if he could help him overcome the vision block; on the other one, there was Andy’s weird behaviour and the guilt weighing on his gut that maybe it was his fault or something he’d said. He spent the rest of his afternoon attempting to do homework with that storm in his head.


	7. Somewhere only we know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And if you have a minute, why don't we go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Sorry Keane for the use of that song as a title(?) :v And well, with this, I'd also have to apologize to every band member involved in this crap to be... well, involved in this, I guess?... but honestly, it's not my fault these ships are so faken cute, it's yours, -you hear me, Joedy and Peterick?, I'm talking to you guys-...
> 
>  
> 
> Someone please shut me up :v)

Andy didn’t want to come out of his bed. He really didn’t. He had closed his eyes again, he wanted to reset the night over and over so the day wouldn’t begin and he could remain lying on his bed unaware of the world around him. That was a common thing for him, hating days and not wanting to go to school, wishing he was dead instead. But this time, bullying wasn’t the reason that made him feel that way. Facing Joe was gonna be the hardest of challenges he’d had to face in his already shitty adolescence. He used to think that when they finally got together, he’d be happy at last, and seeing Joe would be the reason he woke up everyday to face school with a little more hope. But no, since he was a little good for nothing, Joe wouldn’t look at him the same way and maybe had even stopped liking him. Off course, Patrick said Joe wasn’t mad at him, but he was just being polite.

So Andy kept his eyes closed, maybe the world would stop existing if he did it for long enough. _Why, why? This was supposed to be perfect…_

"Andy?" whispered his mother while rubbing his shoulder, "why aren’t you up yet?"

"... I don’t want to go…"

"Andy, please, get up." He opened his eyes and stared at her for a while, and she recognized _that_ look in them. She sighed softly, she really didn’t like that look, it reminded her of the incident and how she’d seen it many times before thinking it wasn’t a big thing and whatever had happened  would just pass. "I know it’s hard honey, but you gotta do it, it’s the last year, okay?"

He took a deep breath in and out with his eyes closed, and he obliged to move for his mother, but he really didn’t want to get up and face Joe. And Pete. And Patrick. Shit, so many people to see today. At least Joe and Pete didn’t know the details of the conversation, he’d kill himself if they did. However, Patrick would have some weird look in his eyes, he’d judge Andy in some way, he was just too polite to say it, but the image he had of Andy would have changed for worse. F. U. C. K. He closed the shower tap wishing he’d melt and drain down with all the water and soap, so he’d disappear. But as usual, it wouldn’t happen. Everything he’d wish for never came true.

He dressed up and grabbed his stuff for the day: a bunch notebooks he’d end up recycling and forgetting the contents of. He walked to the kitchen where his mother was serving breakfast, waiting for him. He forced a smile for her sake but they both knew it wasn’t real. She smiled back and they ate in silence. He wanted to talk to her, he really did, but how stupid the topic could be? _“Mom, I got self-esteem issues and I’m too insecure so I get jealous of my boyfriend for no fucking reason, what do I do?”_ No. It was stupid. He washed the tableware he’d used and said goodbye to his mother.

He walked out of his house and felt the chill of fall on his face as he approached the bus stop. When he got there, he was surprised to see someone he hadn’t seen around for a while.

"Hey Andy!" said the guy with a smile.

"Hi, Ryan, what’s up? I thought you… didn’t take the bus anymore..."

"Oh yeah, today I had to, my dad had a medical appointment and needed the car, I’m okay with it, no big deal."

"I see."

"You alright?"

Andy turned his eyes in another direction making the expression in his face a bit darker, it didn’t give him the slightest chance to lie about it.

"Wanna talk about it?" asked Ryan softly and Andy turned to look back at him.

"Maybe later…?"

"Alright, just tell me when you’re ready, okay?" he replied with a friendly smile, and Andy nodded. He decided that he really wanted that friendship back in his life, he was gonna mend it.

The bus arrived couple minutes later and Andy felt awkward, he didn’t know what to do. Should he sit with Ryan or Joe? Sure Joe would expect him to, but he started talking to Ryan and it would be weird if he just sat with someone else… He didn’t have much time to think about it ‘cause the bus door opened and Ryan got on. He followed behind feeling his feet weighing tons, and his heart shrinking in his chest.

"Ryan! Come here now!!" called Brendon from the back of the bus. **“Should’ve guessed it...”** thought Andy. Off course, he was friends with Brendon now. Andy almost got in the train of thoughts of Ryan feeling Brendon was a better friend when the guy turned back to Andy and said.

"Then see you later, okay?"

"Yeah…" answered Andy standing in the middle of the bus. He had to walk further, but he didn’t want to reach Joe’s seat and look him in the eyes. When he finally did, he was received with a smile.

"Hi Andy." He said sweetly. Andy’s hands started sweating.

"Hi."

"Hey buddy," said a voice from across Joe’s seat. It was Pete, "how are you?"

"Fine," he lied. He saw Joe’s hand stretched in front of him and their eyes met for what seemed an eternity before he held it hesitantly. He felt Joe’s warm fingers around his, and then how he pulled softly. He got the hint and moved to sit next to him. When he did, Joe put his arm around Andy’s shoulders and kissed his temple softly. It was surreal, after what had happened the day before he still wanted Andy. He turned to see Joe and found a smile on his face, it made him feel a little guilty, being all upset when nothing wrong was going on. He felt like crying and hated himself for that, honesty, he _had to_ fucking cry about _fucking everything?!_ He choke the tears back and attempted a smile, Joe rested his head on Andy’s and that’s how he knew it had been convincing enough.

He turned to his left to see Patrick staring at him, his eyes said “You okay?” he nodded softly and Patrick smiled. He noticed how Pete’s arms were tight around Patrick, and then he started rubbing his nose against the blond’s cheek, they both started giggling, Patrick said “Peete...” as he always did when Pete was bugging him, that tone that sounded like he was lecturing him, but at the same time didn’t mind the bugging. Andy tried not to mind it, but it was somehow something that he wanted, he wanted to hug Joe without feeling ashamed, he wanted to kiss him and giggle with him, and be playful just like that, and have fun that way. And maybe he wasn’t the most outgoing guy, so maybe he wouldn’t do exactly what Pete and Patrick did, but at least a bond like what they had, that certainty of love(which Andy knew for sure was love, almost everyone at school had seen them together since the day they started dating, and new people were given the notice, and even teachers who didn’t give them classes knew that was love), for some reason he wanted to be as disgustingly cute as them, he was jealous of that, mainly because he knew the thing holding him and Joe back was his own insecurity.

The bus stopped some time later and Andy sighed softly; he got up from the chair not really wanting to but obliged because Joe needed to go out as well. As he walked out of the bus, he thought Joe would be worried for him, and if he hadn’t stop liking him yet, he sure would with that negative attitude of his. So he took the chance when Joe reached his side and very shyly moved his hand towards Joe’s. When his fingertips touched Joe’s skin the later turn to see him, but instead of being all nervous, he went for it and wrapped his fingers around Joe’s hand. Joe squeezed his hand as he smiled and Andy smiled back, a genuine smile that made him feel a little better about that thing the day before, and they walked through the school entrance and to Andy’s locker, where Andy told him he’d hang out some time with Ryan and  Joe said “see you later” with a smile. Andy felt his legs melt under his weight, he didn’t know if it was because he was still nervous, or because that heavy crush he had on the blue eyes’ boy.

He sat in class trying to pay attention but getting carried away by the thoughts of what he would say to Ryan, as he had shown he really needed to talk. About what, exactly? He tried to put his ideas in order, and because of that, he didn’t know what to answer when the teacher asked him. He felt a bit stupid at the teacher’s head shaking and some kids’ laughing, but then he went back to business. He was just so used to that. He kept going like that until first break and stood in front of his locker waiting for Ryan to arrive… but they hadn’t talked about a place to meet, crap, he really had to learn how to think things in advance.

"Hey!" he turned to see Ryan and thanked the way he had just come up with meeting Andy there.

"Hi…"

"So, you wanna go now, or later?"

"Now..." replied Andy with a sigh.

"Where?"

"The library." As usual. Ryan nodded and they started walking.

  
The library was big and lonely enough for them to talk about pretty much anything. They hung around there a lot before Brendon came in. They silently sat in their usual table, in the furthest corner of the room. Andy took a while before starting to talk, he really needed to take everything out and be as clear as possible. Also, he needed _not_ to cry, it was really hard for him when talking about his emotions, something he didn’t do often, but he could try at least.

After all his ranting and trying to get the ideas through the lump in his throat, Andy stared warily at Ryan holding his face on his hands and glancing at the table.

"Well… I don’t really know what to say, you’ve said it all… uhm…" Andy held his breath and hoped Ryan would say something better than that, he really needed it. It was hard, however, since Andy said all points of view he could think of when he ranted, so maybe he’d already destroyed Ryan’s arguments. Shit. "See, I don’t think you have to worry too much about Joe, I think he’s okay with you. The thing is you don’t really know each other too well, you have to take your time for that."

"And, if when that happens he decides that he doesn’t like me anymore?"

"Well, then it’s because it wasn’t meant to be. There’s a whole world of people out there, Andy, and I know that you’ve liked him for a long time and you’re thankful that he saved your life, but if it’s not him then it’s not, and you can just live with the memory and move forward. Now, I’m not saying that can be easy, but if it happens you’ll have to embrace it, I’ll be there if you want me too as well." He said the last sentence putting his hand reassuringly on Andy’s forearm. Andy tried to smile but everything hurt too much. It was the truth, of course, but it hurt like shit. "And obviously, I’m not saying that _is_ gonna happen, maybe he decides that, I don’t know, he wants to marry you or something," Andy snorted and giggled at that, and Ryan felt the weight on his shoulders decrease a bit, "you don’t have to hurry your thoughts too much into the future, especially if it’s a really dark future you’re picturing there. And remember he’s also learning how to be a boyfriend, maybe he’s also nervous on how to do things and how to take these kind of situation."

"Yeah, sure. He’s perfect."

"No one is perfect dude, believe it or not, even _I_ have failures," Andy chuckled, "I know, it’s hard to believe but it’s true. Hehe, okay, enough of that. Seriously, you just have to relax, it’s not like he’s actually cheating on you, and as you said, Frank scares the living shit out of him, so I think he’d be the last person Joe would consider. Plus Frank’s wrapped around Gerard’s finger, he only wants to examine Joe, which in my opinion is a bit freaky as well."

"That’s why I feel so dumb and wrong when thinking about that as a possibility…"

"Okay, you just have to leave that out now, it’s okay, you’ve never been in a relationship and I know it’s a bit scary, but within time you’ll learn what not to worry about, like the pity thing. If you feel that thing is as big as it seems then talk to him, he’ll have to understand you were not going through the best moment of your life when that happened, and if he feels about you the way he says, then he’ll listen and talk to you in a rational way, he’ll try to make things better and he will not disrespect you. And if he does, for anything you love, swear you’ll punch his fucking face, you go to the gym, it has to give you results when needed, right?"

"Ryan!"

"Okay, if you don’t punch him, you tell me and I’ll do it, okay?"

"God Ryan, you’re insane."

"Hey, nobody insults my friends and gets away with it. And you can’t let him think that because you’re his boyfriend he can treat you however he wants, alright?"

"Alright, mom…" replied Andy in a mocking tone.

"Okay, boy, now eat something and go to your class, or I’ll ground you."

They chuckled and left the library, then they parted ways to find their respective groups of friends. Andy felt much better, that chat with Ryan had been the breath of fresh air he needed after feeling like drowning.

While that happened, Joe was with Pete and Patrick hanging as usual, as Patrick tried to finish the homework he had to give in the next period. Suddenly, they heard loud steps approaching and saw a tall guy with a frown on his face walking towards Joe.

"Your boyfriend stole my best friend." He stated sassily before Joe could say anything else.

"Well, they were best friends before, you know?" Joe replied, being unable to hold back the little stung of jealousy in his heart. _You know it’s your own fault you didn’t talk to him earlier._ He said to himself.

"I don’t give a fuck, he was supposed to help me out with Sarah."

"Right now, really? We have whole entire year, dude." Answered Pete in a voice that suggested Brendon was crazy.

"'Whole’ and ‘entire’ are synonyms, duh. Plus it has to be planned with time, it has to be fucking perfect. Don’t tell me you didn’t spend your whole fucking life trying to court him." Said brendon pointing at Patrick, and that made the blond blush in a very bright shade of pink.

"No, well, I didn’t plan it, it just sort of happened."

"Oh, well I hate you."

"Why?"

"Because, asshole."

"Guys chill out, you’re just stressed because of the prom thing, don’t be too harsh on each other." Joe interfered trying to be the voice of reason, someone really had to since Patrick was hiding in his hoodie and wouldn’t move a muscle.

"Yeah, whatever. Well, now that Ryan’s not available, I’m staying with you." Brendon sat amongst them and they remained silent until he bursted "JOE PLEASE, TELL ME SHE’S GONNA SAY YESS, PLEEASEE!!!"

"Wow, hey, let me go, geez, you hurt my arm."

"PLEASE, JOEEE."

"Okay, OKAY! Stop it now, let me focus…"

Brendon let go reluctantly and and stared at him with anxiety, while Joe just took a deep breath and closed his eyes. As usual, he just wondered why him and cursed the day he got the gift, or just the day people thought it was a good idea to ask him bullshit. Then he really got into the prediction process.

He didn’t see anything, as expected, Brendon really had to decide asking her or else he would never see a thing. He decided to take another route, make decisions in that moment to change the outcome. So what was what Brendon needed? To know what she liked in order to make a good proposal. Okay, if he and Ryan didn’t have the information yet, he decided to go ask her himself. He pictured the whole scene, him asking, she answering, and finally, him telling Brendon what was it. And again, blank. Fucking blank. The idiot wouldn’t do anything.

"Dude, you really have to think of asking her if you want an answer, I’m blank right now, I’m trying really hard to get to the event but it won’t happen if you don’t decide to go ahead."

"But you really don’t get it, right? I need to prepare an amazing proposal so she’ll be impressed and accepts, and I can’t waste time and money if she’s gonna say “no”."

"Dude, the Prom is gonna be held in this school, _this_ school, this place ain’t fancy at all, you know? Prom here is not the biggest thing, just ask her and that’s it," said Pete feeling a little annoyed by Brendon’s nervous attitude.

"Huh, easy for you to say, you got your companion sure for like 4 years now…" Patrick sunk deeper in his hoodie, unable to say a word.

"Stop embarrassing my cutie angel, you asshole."

"Listen," said Joe to stop them from going further into the discussion," you just have to go and say it. Simple as that. Say the words, “hey, do you wanna go to Prom with me?” it’s the easiest thing  to do, you’ll get an answer and that’s it."

"But Joe…"

"Go say it, you have to live, then you’ll have a story to tell in the future. Go, live."

Brendon sighed and stood up, then turned to see Joe with puppy eyes, but he received a serious glance in return.

"Okay then, I’ll see what I can do… bye…"

"See you."

"Hey Joe, you really don’t see a thing?"

"I don’t, not when I think about him asking her, he’s totally not gonna do it. So I decided to do something else, I decided to go ask her how she’d like to be invited to Prom and she told me…"

"AND WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL THE LITTLE FUCKER, HE’S SO ANNOYING!"

"I did: just say the words. Nothing more and nothing less. She just expects to hear the question, the answer depends on the person."

"Oh, but still, you should have told him that."

"Nah, I really think he has to live a little. One thing I’ve learned from knowing things in advance is it sometimes spoils the fun of living, you know? Some things just have to be unexpected, so you can feel everything at its fullest or else it’s like reading the ending of a book, you can finish it, but you won’t enjoy the suspense as much. Of course, the thing I do with the cops is totally different, is to stop crimes from happening; but with everyday little things, I don’t know you just have to live them."

"That was so fucking deep I could see Adele rolling in it."

"Shut up Pete, you just ruined the moment."

"But I mean it! It was deep, it’s just my way to say it."

"Yeah, “your” way, you read it on facebook."

"Well, it really sounds like me..."

Andy was walking towards the group, and as soon as he saw the three guys, he remembered how it felt to look at them from the distance, to imagine what it would be like to be with them, to imagine how Joe’s friends would receive him. It was an intangible delusion to actually know how that thing worked from the inside. Joe’s friends group was a _thing_ Andy couldn’t explain and saw as a big mystery of humanity. He held much hype about them inside of him, they were Joe’s friends, the ones that knew all about him, the ones he’d chosen to hang out with. He’d honestly felt a bit jealous, he wanted to be chosen by Joe to spend their time together. Joe was so great, so unbelievable, Andy thought being close to him was a privilege of few, and he didn’t feel enough to fit that. Then he thought of what Ryan had said: Joe was just a regular guy, and his friends were as regular as him, they made mistakes, and they could go wrong. And most importantly, as Ryan had pointed out, Joe could hurt or mistreat him. Andy had never really thought of it, as he pictured Joe as a perfect guy. _No one is perfect…_ Did he have to worry about it? No, of course not, if it didn’t happen soon then it wouldn’t happen, and he wouldn’t have to be waiting for that to happen, Joe really seemed like a cool respectful guy. There was always Ryan in case things went wrong, but he prefered to think of the good side, Joe was good.

Since Andy looked at him so much, Joe turned to look in his direction and a smile immediately appeared on his face. Yes, things were alright. Joe beckoned him to get closer and so he did.

"Hi, how’d it go?" Joe asked warmly.

"Fine, it was… fine." Andy replied sincerely, he felt much better now that he’d let everything out and had found all the support of a good friend.

"Good."

They went back to their classes when the break finished, and when lunchtime came, Andy got closer to Joe.

"Can I… tell you something?" he said almost in a whisper and got his hand really close to Joe, without actually touching him.

"Uh? Yeah, yes, what is it?"

"Well, I… not here, like, in private?" he said and gave Joe that wary look he loved. Joe swore to god the guy looked like a fucking bunny, so adorable, he wanted to just kiss him right away. But he held back, Andy just said “privacy”, and the color of the situation didn’t really suggest a kiss.

"Sure, like after school, your place or mine?"

"Uh, yeah, my place if it’s okay…"

"It’s perfect."

They sat at their table with the other two guys, and Joe put his head down. _Really? Now_

"Trohmaan…" said a sinsong voice from behind him.

"Yes, Frank?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi darlings, I guess you know what happened when the chapter is long :v  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, because I worked my ass out trying to make it enjoyable :P  
> And if you liked it -or not- why not leaving a comment? I really want to read what you guys have to say about this :)  
> 


	8. Don't make me go down in flames.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shit-ton of problems and dilemmas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I don't know if the title really makes sense, I just needed one and I'm listening to Ghost Town, so I was like "Meh, let's borrow this one, not like they'll ever know about it :P"  
> *Sorry for the long wait babiezz, everything got in the way: creative block, university, real life, and more creative blocks. But I'm here with a new chapter, and hopefully I'll get closer to the actual plot of this episode soon :D

"Mind if I borrow a bit of your time?"

"What for?" Joe couldn’t hide in his voice how done he was.

"What else?" Frank replied a bit defensive. "I want to try something with you." Joe rubbed his temples. **Why is he the only creep who knows about this kind of things? Why couldn’t it be… Andy?** Hell yes, if Andy was the one who knew about paranormal stuff, he’d spend the whole day subject to his questions and experiments. But no, it was Frank, fuck.

"Yeah, let’s go." He stood up looking at his friends like begging for help. Pete and Patrick just shrugged softly, Andy’s face was unreadable.

He followed behind Frank thinking what Andy’s expression could mean, did it have something to do with the thing he wanted to talk about? Hopefully it wasn’t too serious.

"So," started Frank taking Joe out of his thoughts, "what took you so long to realize you liked the guy?"

"Uhh… I don’t know.. why is this relevant?"

"Well, first off, I’m just curious, don’t be too defensive, ok? And second, I think it may have something to do with your visions, maybe it triggered them, I’ve thought about it for a long time now.

"You’ve known for couple weeks…"

"Yes, a very busy couple of weeks for me."

"Huh, that’s so."

"Yeah. But really, how did you realize it, or… not?"

"I don’t know, man, I wasn’t thinking about that at the moment, I thought he was kinda cool, but never realized I liked him until the vision came up." He replied feeling a bit uncomfortable, Frank wasn’t exactly a close person to Joe and talking to him about his feelings for Andy wasn’t ideal.

"But, you didn’t know he liked you back?"

"No, I didn’t even know he was gay." Frank stopped on his tracks and turned to see Joe with his eyes huge of pure disbelief, then he bursted in laughter. It was a laughter like Joe had never heard before, it was a bit creepy and maniac, but… honest? Frank was honestly amused by the comment. What? What was so funny about it?

"YOUR FUCKING GAYDAR IS BROKEN, DUDE!! HAHAHAHAHAHA"

"My... what?"

"Oh, wait, you don’t know what a gaydar is?" Joe shook his head reluctantly, and Frank laughed a bit more, "oh boy, you really are something, right? You should be able to recognize other homosexuals dude."

"And you can do it?"

"Yeah," he replied nonchalantly, with which Joe freaked out a bit. No, a lot, his blood ran cold and his eyes widened. **Frank knew all along?**

"So… you know…"

"I know about all non-binary kids at this school. Off course, it’s not MY thing to say." He replied as if he’d read Joe’s thoughts. Sure, he wasn’t going to uncover kids; in fact, if he was the kind, Joe and Andy themselves would have been uncovered a long time ago.

"You knew about us both…"

"Uh, yeah. I also knew about his crush, he was a bit too fucking obvious, I honestly don’t know how you didn’t notice."

"Well, Pete and Patrick didn’t know, either…" answered Joe trying to justify himself about his unawareness of both Andy’s sexuality and crush.

"Okay, to be fair, Pete and Patrick are far too focused on each other to pay attention to the world around them. I think they blocked they gaydars as they don’t need to recognize other non-binaries, you know?"

"Well, if you say so…" he didn’t think any of that made sense, but Frank was the one who knew about paranormal stuff and -how weird- gaydars and stuff. The guy got weirder with each passing second.

"Alright…" stated Frank when the got to the desired place; it was the very end of the parking lot and Joe really didn’t want to figure out what they could be doing there.

Suddenly, he got a feeling in his gut that told him to duck, he wasn’t really sure of the source of the problem, but the did it anyway. Almost immediately he saw Frank turning around with his arm stretched out, as if he was going to…

"What the fuck, dude?! You’re trying to hit me?!"

"Oh, well, that was a very good start." Replied the shorter guy with a smile.

"Dude!" Joe yelled as he dodged a punch. "Are you fucking insane?"

"No, I’m testing your vision power."

"This is not necessary."

"Yes, it is, I want to know how good your visions work under pressure."

"Ok, that’s a “yes” to insanity for me."

"Is it?" replied Frank as he threw his leg to kick Joe’s shin. Joe kind of missed it, but got to dodge it just in time. Then he heard a sound like a bike and he turned around, but there was nothing. Maybe it wasn’t a real sound, maybe it came from a vision, he tried to move, from where the sound would come, but couldn’t quite get it right. He could only feel it when it actually hit him, the bike hit him in his legs and almost made him fall.

"AGH!!"

"Dude, you missed it!" yelled Frank with a voice laced on disappointment.

"Why did you do that?!" replied Joe turning to see his attacker. **_Michael Way._** **How on Earth?** He looked very weird, all serious on the black bike staring at Joe. No smile, **why does Michael never smile?**

"I wanted to see how resistant you were to pressure, to see if your visions failed, looks like they did… man, I even got to convince Mikey to do it, do you know how hard that was?" he looked really let down, like a child receiving a bad gift on Christmas.

"Well, I’m sorry for that, but brain doesn’t work properly under pressure, I thought you knew about science, dude."

"Huh, yeah, but I thought that since visions are something special they wouldn’t be affected the same way the rest of the brain functions did. THIS IS WHY WE NEED THE CAT-SCAN, DUDE!!"

"Please don’t, Frank…"

"SHUT UP!!  I know about science, hell, I even _know_ someone who can cat-scan you… LEGALLY, in case you were wondering. Come on, Joe, this can be a great advance in science, neuroscience and occultism."

"You were getting me until you said “occultism”."

"Okay, not occultism, but please man, it can be fun and interesting. You really want to know and understand what’s happening to you, I know it, would you let me help you?"

Joe felt a bit taken aback by that last comment. He really wanted to understand what was happening to him and why. Especially why. He started considering Frank’s proposal, but he knew he wouldn’t be satisfied with the answer, a CAT-Scan would probably tell him how it worked, but not _why_ it had arrived in his life. _Why him?_ That was the question he wanted to be answered.

For a while he tried to convince himself that maybe it would give him a purpose in life, since he wasn’t really sure of what to do with it; maybe he was supposed to be useful helping the police solving cases, but that really wasn’t what he wanted for his life, he didn’t know exactly what is was, but working with the police felt like too big a responsibility for him, plus, what the heck do you study to work with the police? He didn’t want to go to police academy, the idea made him cringe. And even if he was just an external helper, he still needed another career, another job. So yes, maybe it would give him a purpose in life, but it would also not do it, so he was still unsure on what that “gift” could mean. The only thing he didn’t regret about it was, off course, saving Andy; he wouldn’t trade that for all the answers in the world.

"Are you sure the CAT-Scan will work?"

"Well, for what do you want it to work?"

" _Me?_ You said it could give me answers, that’s what I want, duh."

"There are so many kinds of answers, Joe, maybe the answer is psychic powers can’t be seen on CAT-Scans, would you be okay with it?" Joe sighed and looked away.

"No."

"Well, if that’s the case then we can look for the answer somewhere else. But we still don’t know, we might get an answer there, so…"

"... alright…" he said sounding pretty hesitant.

"Really?" said Frank with childish joy.

"Yeah, really."

"Oh my…! Did you hear that, Mikey? He’s cooperating!" the guy on the bike just nodded as an answer.

"Just one thing, Frank."

"What is it?"

"Don’t make you friends hurt me again, okay?" Frank’s shoulders fell when he heard that "Or else, I won’t help you."

"Fine, I won’t make anyone else hit you with a bike again."

"Not a bike nor anything else."

"You’re so boring. Alright, you won’t get hurt by any means."

"Thanks."

"No, Joseph, thank you."

After that, Joe nodded and turned around to go back with his friends, he needed their “normalcy” to even out Frank’s weirdness.

"Wait, Joe," called Frank sounding a bit more serious and Joe turned around immediately. When Frank sounded sort of serious he meant business, "I honestly think you should practice you visions under pressure, dude, you never know when you’ll need them. Don’t make that face man, I know it seems hard, but you can’t let your emotions, physical or mental states of mind to cloud your visions if they can save a life; get it?"

Joe sighed and nodded. He got it. he got it a bit too right, and it hurt, it as an enormous responsibility for a guy as small as him.

"Dude, you look beaten up." Stated Pete when he arrived at their table.

"Crashed by a bicycle, to be more precise."

"FUCKING FRANK CRASHED YOU WITH A BIKE?!"

"No, he got Michael Way to do it."

"Are you alright? Does it hurt a lot?" Asked Andy in a passionate whisper full of concern. Joe turned to look at him, he saw his face full of worry. Adorable. Well, not quite, it was painful seeing Andy hurt, but he looked adorable. **Little bunny** , Joe thought again.

"Well, no, not like he aimed to kill me, my skin burns a little but I’m alright."

"Then why do you look like you’ve been beaten up?" asked Pete.

"Well, it’s just… it’s something he said…"

"He confessed he climbed up your window at night and performed a lobotomy on you?"

They all stared at Pete for a while, neither knew what to say, the comment had been a bit over the top. Even Patrick, who was used to hearing stuff like that gave his adored boyfriend a confused stare.

"What? Joe himself said he thought Frank would open his skull with his bare hands, right?"

"Well, yeah… but, Pete, that was too creepy."

"It was too freaky, honey."

"Okay."

"Well, whatever," said Joe in a sigh, "it’s just about all the responsibility this shitty gift takes, you know? I mean, it’s about people’s life at some point, it’s too much for me."

"Well, think of you as a superhero, superheroes can do lots of cool stuff."

"Pete, I’m just a teen, I’m not a hero, I didn’t ask for this, and there are more dangers and shit and enemies to superheroes than cool stuff, you know? I mean, you’ve read the comics, they have lots of enemies and their lives aren’t normal, I don’t want that."

"Dude, you were just being all inspirational about living the moment and shit, and now you’re all “I hate my life”, I thought I was the bipolar one, bro."

"There are differences between them, I mean, one thing is enjoying the present and all I said, and the other one is being responsible for the life of _others_. I can’t help but to think about all the lives I won’t save, like, yeah, superheroes are cool, but they can’t do it all, Pete. That’s too much for me."

"Well, based on my own experience, thinking too much is no good, try and see the positive side, bro."

"Yeah, I guess I have to…"

The day finished with no news, but Joe kept thinking about those two very important things: the use of his gift and what Andy had to tell him.

"Hey, ready to go?" he asked the other guy when he met him by his locker. Andy just turned to see him without saying a word, just widened his eyes and opened his mouth a bit, but no sound would come out of it, he also looked a bit sad. "You alright?" asked Joe with lots of concern, Andy had been really weird that day and he was worried about what could be going through that little depressive head of his.

"... yeah" he answered after nodding for couple seconds.

"Okay, let’s go then," Andy looked at him with a bit of confusion, "to your house? You needed to tell me something…"

"Uh? Yes, about that…"

"What? What’s wrong?"

"Nothing… actually… no, nothing, let’s go."

They walked silently holding hands all the way long. Andy would hardly ever lift his head up, and that was the purest reflection of the state of his soul in the moment. He felt wrong, he felt really wrong. he’d been thinking about his own worries and never thought Joe would have problems _of his own_ , he’d surely needed to be listened, but what did Andy do? Why, ignore him for most of the recess to chat with his friend while Joe surely needed someone to talk to. Yes, there were Pete and Patrick, but he was his _boyfriend,_ right? He was supposed to be there for him. Andy was a pretty shitty boyfriend.

"Here we are," he heard Joe’s voice and stopped in his tracks. Damn, he was going to walk past his own house _again_. Such an idiot.

He looked for his keys and opened the door feeling his hand weighing tons. What was he going to say? How could he not see that Joe was also feeling confused about his life? Why…?

He walked into the house not really wanting to, not with Joe there. It would have been much better if he hadn’t said anything, what was he thinking? That he could simply confront Joe about his feelings for him? And why did he use the word “confront”?, it was a bit too harsh.

"So… what is it?"

"Uh?"

"What you needed to tell me…" Joe was a bit confused by Andy’s attitude, and at that point he didn’t know what to expect anymore. He was just hoping Andy wouldn’t break up with him.

"Alright, so…" Andy found it really hard to speak past the lump forming in his throat, but if he didn’t say anything Joe would see him as a freak and would probably break up with him, "Joe… do you… do you really like me?" his voice barely carried on, but Joe could register it. Andy wrapped his fingers around a lock of his hair nervously.

"Do I… like you? Yes, I do."

"You don’t even know me…" Joe felt a bit caught off guard. That was true, but he didn’t expect Andy to bring it up so suddenly, without a warning.

"Well, yeah, but you didn’t know me either, yet you liked me as well."

"I… I know, but you... I… well," Andy didn’t know how to say what came next without appearing like a stalker, but he’d already begun "I’ve been looking at you for like 2 years or so, and I know you just.. well… a bit better, but you… you didn’t, like, you never paid attention to me… so. Well, Joe just so you know… I… damn…" he stopped talking, now he had crossed a line, he felt so stupid, maybe Joe would take the chance to leave him.

"And how do you know I never paid attention to you?" replied Joe. Granted, he never spoke to Andy as much as he should have, and only borrowed his eraser or homework; but Joe used to look at him while he daydreamed during class, and he thought Andy was cute, he just hadn’t realized Andy could be so important to him, that was all, wasn’t it?

  
Andy choked on his words. Fuck, he had assumed Joe didn’t know him or didn’t like him. He had assumed Joe never paid attention to him.

"Uh… well... uh… Well, no, but, no. What I meant to say was you…" he tried to stop his tears as much as he could, before Joe would leave forever," you don’t have to feel forced to be with me just because you saved me, okay? This is not a game or a fairytale, and I can be alone, I’m used to being alone, and..." he felt the tears that had pooled in his eyes start to roll. Then, a pair of arms around him, pulling him close.

"What? I don’t feel forced to be with you."  **What the hell is he saying?**

"Then… why are you with me?"

"Because I like you. When we were at the Hospital I thought you were happy that I asked you out."

Andy pulled away just a bit, only what Joe allowed him to, because he didn’t want to let Andy go.

"I was, I really was, but then I started considering it. I was just a loner, my life didn’t matter, I pushed my only friend away, and you hardly ever talked to me, why would you ever want to date me? Because you felt responsible for me? You could have just walked away and left me."

"Because you are a good guy, you were never rude to anyone, you are very sweet, we’ve spent a short time together, but I like what I’ve seen of you. You are a really good friend, and... you and you have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen." They both blushed and Andy finally lifted his face to look at Joe in the eyes. "It’s impossible not to like you, you’re so adorable," Andy felt his heart beat faster and the temperature of his cheeks rise up, "come on, don’t say those things, your life really matters, and you started talking to Ryan again, it’s alright."

"Yeah… I guess… oh, damn…" Andy turned his face again.

"What’s wrong?"

"I must seem so stupid right now I… I said all those things, sorry Joe, I didn’t… please, don’t hate me!" he suddenly hugged Joe very tight and cried, he felt really ashamed in that moment. **Now that’s it, he’ll break up with me.**

"I don’t hate you, dear, Andy, it’s alright," he moved his hand towards Andy’s face and dried his tears away, "I don’t think you’re stupid, okay?"

"Alright…"

Andy couldn’t stop crying, but at least Joe was hugging him, and he knew Joe liked him.


	9. Tightrope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joedy fluff, everybody!  
> (and then it's not so... fluffy... sorry? :v)  
> And some plot to the episode, yeah, some of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOOK, SHE'S ALIVEEE!!!  
> I am EXTREMELY SORRY for leaving you hanging for more than an entire year, holy smokes, I wanna cry. But last year wasn't exactly what I can call easy, and also I got blocked with this story, I'd blow off steam with one-shots here and there, but at the same time I felt super guilty for not updating these longer stories (this and Relapses, and then I started Drowning Lessons, and it is also uh... drowning in abandonement :'v).  
> But as my thesis (whom I'm very likely to kiss goodbye by the end of this year) is being read and checked, I have a bit of time for you.  
> I love you for being so patient with me <3  
> *Please excuse the typos if there's any :v*

Andy just dried the tears from his face, brushing softly, barely even moving. Joe had his arm around Andy’s shoulders as he talked to his mother on the phone sort of explaining why he was running late and promising he wouldn’t be home after 7 pm. He off course didn’t say that he was staying with Andy because he was worried that Andy would hurt himself or something like that (he didn’t say that to Andy either), and he didn’t say he didn’t want to leave until he was sure Andy was okay, or had at least stopped crying.

Andy, on his side, felt weird, he had met Joe’s parents only once, and he didn’t want to be just eavesdropping on the conversation. And he actually wasn’t, he just happened to be leaning against Joe’s body as he spoke to his mother, but it still felt wrong. He really needed to stop thinking that way, or else he’d never stop crying.

"Alright, bye mom. I love you too." Joe hung up and put his phone back in his pocket, then turned to see Andy, who was still looking in a different direction.

He was at a lost, he didn’t know what to do to make Andy feel better. He didn’t like being intrusive, but he wished he could just get into Andy’s head and fix what was wrong, fix all the sadness and then see happy Andy, knowing he’d always be okay, and he wouldn’t feel bad about himself again. But off course, he couldn’t do it, so he had to find a way to fix things from the outside.

"I know I was wrong…" Joe begun after a moment of silence, his voice sounded somehow heavy, and Andy turned his head around just a bit, but didn’t dare to look up and meet his eyes, "ignoring the situation you were in, was just wrong. And ignoring what other kids go through, is wrong. I could have been your friend earlier. I just didn’t know how to. I thought you were okay, I mean, you seemed like you could take everything, like you didn’t need anyone. I never imagined what you went through; so, I guess I didn’t know how to address the topic.

“I also hadn’t realized how much I liked you. Probably because I didn’t feel entirely alright with this. Like, you met my family, they’re pretty conservative, so even when I realized I am gay, I didn’t feel uh… allowed to _be_. So maybe that’s why I didn’t allow myself to really think about you that way. But when I got my vision I realized that I wanted you in my life, that I couldn’t waste anymore time, that there was a very good reason we’d gotten this second chance. I finally came to terms with my feelings, that’s when I allowed myself to like you, to recognize I like you. I think I know how all of this made it look in your eyes, it looked like I didn’t like you, or I didn’t even care about talking to you; but I did, I just didn’t know how to."

"It’s not your fault, Joe…" said Andy with a small voice, he was thinking that now Joe was blaming himself, and he didn’t want that, he didn’t want to make Joe feel guilty.

"Neither it’s yours. It’s just how things happened. Yes, I would like things to be different. I would much rather have talked to you earlier. But, we can’t change everything. I don’t know why my visions started at that moment, but I think it makes me appreciate this even more. Now, there’s one thing I want you to know: You helped me come out to my parents, I never thought I’d be able to, but having you here made me feel confident about it; it made everything more real, tangible. I wanted to compromise with you and I couldn’t keep you as a secret, that’s why I did it. You are a very important part of my life and I want you to know it, I want you to feel that way. I don’t want you to keep saying that your life doesn’t matter, because it does."

"Wow, Joe, I… I didn’t… know…"

"It’s because I never told you, it’s my fault. But I’m telling you now, because I realized that I haven’t been open about my feelings for you, I have to be more open, so that you know that I indeed like you."

"You’re such a great boy, Joe" whispered Andy feeling overwhelmed by a strong feeling of safety, guilt, trust, joy, and many more things. He didn’t even know what he was feeling, he was happy for hearing that from Joe, but at the same time he felt bad for forcing those words out of him.

"Not better than you, tho."

"Oh, come on," Andy replied a bit more playfully, he felt like the mood had lightened a bit.

"It’s true, tho. I know our story doesn’t have an ideal beginning, but we can make it have a great ending, you up to it?" Joe said lifting Andy’s face with his finger, trying to get some eye contact from him. He didn’t like seeing the redness in his eyes, he wanted to do everything in his hands to stop that from happening again. Then he saw a soft smile forming on Andy’s lips, and he felt a little better about the whole situation.

"Yes, I’d love it." Joe smiled back and replied,

"Alright then."

They looked at each other for a while doing nothing, basically because they didn’t know what to do. It was only on the outside, though, because Andy was doing and undoing everything to Joe in his mind: he was lying on top of Joe with his legs at either side of his boyfriend’s body, kissing him like there was no tomorrow, and Joe was hugging and kissing him back. But he just had to blink to be back in reality: they were just sitting in silence, just looking at each other. He sighed at the perspective, because he was disappointed in this reality. He was mainly disappointed in himself because of his shyness, if he weren’t as shy, he’d probably take the chance and kiss Joe. Maybe not like in his fantasy, but a soft kiss wouldn’t be bad at all.

He was just deciding on doing so. It wasn’t easy, and he didn’t want to freak Joe out, so it wasn’t easy to just come up with a move. However, when he thought that he would probably consider the option of maybe actually trying to start a move to perhaps get closer, Joe closed his eyes shut. He was making _that_ face, that very face he made whenever he had a vision. Andy didn’t really know what to do when that happened, so he just held his breath and waited until Joe would react. Something he was sure of, though, was that the kiss was out of question as for that moment. He was kind of mad at himself for not doing it earlier, but he was totally relieved that he hadn’t done it at the same time, because it would have been extremely awkward to be in the middle of a kiss and then BAM! a fucking vision.

Joe blinked a few times coming back to his senses.

"Shit…"

"What was it?"

"Some girls from another fancy school won’t show up to school in the two next weeks. They’ll go missing. Their parents won’t know anything from them after school, they’ll just go missing."

"But you have clue, right? Do you?"

"No…" Joe’s shoulders fell when he answered. He really wanted an answer, he wanted to know exactly what was gonna happen to those girls, so he could warn the cops about that without them having to guess and wait unprepared. But he had nothing, "I still have to call the police, though. They’re the only ones who can contact their parents."

"And you know exactly their names?"

"No, unluckily it was pretty blurry, I mean, there was a newscast, I guess, but I couldn’t quite see it. I want to tell Detective Roland, so at least they have something, but it really doesn’t help much."

"Well, what if you tell him and try to get the vision again? Maybe you can find a way to trigger it and get more information." Joe lifted his head with a glimmer on his face.

"Yes," he said with determination, "yes, that’s a great idea" Andy felt butterflies in his stomach when Joe smiled, Joe had the prettiest half-smile ever, "thanks," he said effusively as he wrapped his arms tight around Andy.

Andy couldn’t help but to bite his lip, his heart had gone insane, he didn’t know if it was beating faster or not at all and his cheeks were warm, Joe’s hug was simply amazing. To top everything, Joe just decided to kiss his temple for a bit longer than he used to. Woah, Andy’s eyes fluttered shut and he sighed a very pleased sigh. When Joe pulled away, they were both blushing and smiling, they stared at each other silently.

"Alright," said Joe reaching for his phone, "gotta call the guy now." Andy nodded and laid against him again, but this time, it felt different, it felt better.

He heard Joe talking on the phone, apparently Detective Roland wanted him to go to the Station to force the vision back to Joe. As the anxious person he was, Andy’s mood dropped immediately at the perspective of Joe leaving. He bit the inside of his cheek, he didn’t want Joe to leave, but he was going to help the police, he was so helpful and important, Andy could wait, he was used to; he was also used to seeing Joe’s life from afar.

"Well, it seems like I have to go," Joe said after hanging up. Andy nodded showing he understood, after all, it had been his idea, "but I don’t wanna," he said making a pouty face to Andy, he really wanted to spend some time with him, because they had been apart all day long, with Andy talking to Ryan and him getting attacked by Frank and Michael.

"It’s alright," said Andy stroking his arm softly, "you have to help those people," he then decided to make a move and hug Joe. His original intention was kissing him, but he felt a bit shy for that, and he didn’t want to kiss him and then watch him leave, he wanted to stay with him and kiss him for what was left of the afternoon.

Joe hugged back feeling very warm and happy. He was relieved that Andy felt better now, at least for now he wouldn’t hurt himself or anything or that sort.

"I guess I have to call my mom and change the story…" So he took out his phone and called his mom, she then proceeded to offer a ride from Andy’s place to the Station. He really didn’t want to go on his own, and he didn’t want to take the bus or walk or anything, so he gladly accepted. "My mom will be here in about 10 minutes," he said after hanging up.

Andy felt nervous, he had only interacted with her once and it was gonna be hard getting in her good side, given how the family wasn’t really happy about Joe’s sexuality. He nodded anyways and tried to hide his anxiety. However, it didn’t quite work because Joe noticed he wasn’t as relaxed and bright as a couple second before.

"You can come with me if you don’t wanna be alone," Joe said it in the sweetest voice he could manage to see if it made Andy feel better, but surprisingly, he just made a face. Joe didn’t really understand Andy’s behaviour, he had _just_ stopped crying and was smiling, what had happened?

"I’m fine," he said not sounding fine at all.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, well, you’re gonna be busy and stuff… and your mother doesn’t seem to like me a lot, so..."

"Oh, come on…" he started, but then remember his mother saying something pretty similar the day Andy got introduced to his family, "well, you can take that as a chance to get to know eachother better."

"I don’t think that’s gonna work, Joe. I think you should just… go with her, call me when you’re done or something…" he had removed his sight from Joe again, it was a bit frustrating that his mood would be ruined with the smallest thing.

"Hey," Joe said gently pulling Andy’s face towards him by placing his fingers under his chin, like he had done earlier, "you know if I hadn’t had that vision I wouldn’t be leaving, right? You know I really like being with you."

"Yeah, I do," replied Andy hardly keeping his eyes on Joe’s.

"Come here," Joe just pulled him into a hug, he couldn’t resist anymore, he needed to be physically there for Andy, to see if that helped him notice Joe _was there for him and that he liked him_.

Joe hated the realization that Andy’s insecurities were bigger than he’d anticipated. Granted, the guy had thought of killing himself, but Joe had figured he had started to feel better. On the other hand, he figured he should know how that worked, given his experience with Pete. He should know better, but at the same time, he hadn’t had a _direct_ experience with Pete; it had been Patrick who had dealt with it directly and almost single-handedly, so Joe just saw Pete getting better and Patrick saying that it was hard but working. Joe hadn’t dimensioned _how hard_ it actually could be.

"I promise, promise, promise I’m gonna call you when I’m done, okay?" whispered Joe so sweetly, Andy felt like melting in his arms.

"Alright," he replied weakly.

Joe didn’t know what else to do or say, he felt like he was walking on eggshells, like he was on a tightrope on a very high cliff; so he decided just to hug him silently. Maybe that’s what he had to do? Just hug in silence? Just be there physically and give Andy time to feel better?  He thought that just doing it should suffice as for that moment; as he didn’t want to risk anything he remained completely still. He only got an idea of how long how passed when the doorbell rang. Andy jolted in his arms, like some sort of spell had been broken.

 "Uh, you gotta go," stated Andy quickly as he stood up to go opening the door.

"You don’t have to hurry, she won’t get mad." Joe stood up and hugged Andy again, "It’s alright, don’t worry."

They pulled away and Andy opened the door.

"Hi dear," she said to greet Joe, "hi Andrew." She was a bit dry with Andy, tried to sound polite, but she really wasn't into him, because of the relationship he held with her son, and everyone could tell.

Joe greeted his mother back, Andy just nodded and managed a half smile.

"I’m ready, let’s go," said Joe trying to make the situation a bit less awkward, "bye Andy," he said giving him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. Andy kissed back, and with that, Joe left.

Andy really wished he could feel better, just turn a switch in his brain and stop being so insecure and insufferable, but it was hard.

\--

"So," said Joe’s mother when they got in the car, "how was your day?"

"Well, fine, apart from the vision right now, pretty uneventful."

"I see. Andrew seemed pretty tense right there."

"Oh, he’s just"  **suicidal**  "a bit nervous to get accepted… by you…"

She sighed and shook her head softly.

"Please mom, he’s a great guy."

"I wouldn’t mind it if he was just your _friend_."

"You don’t mind Pete and Patrick."

"I do, but it’s different because none of them is my son."

"Please mom, we’ve gone through this, I didn’t choose this, I just _am_ this. I like him because he is nice, why don’t you give him a chance?"

"Joseph, not only is he a male, but had thought of killing himself? What kind of influence can that be?"

"Maybe _I_ can have a _positive_ influence on him."

She just made a face, and the rest of the ride was silent.

"Here we are." She stated when they arrived to the Station. "Do you want me to wait here?"

"Oh, I think you can go in, like, be in the waiting room. I mean, I’m underage, so…"

"Alright."

They entered the building feeling a bit awkward. Joe really didn’t lie not getting along with his own mother, and he didn’t like that she wasn’t supportive of his relationship with Andy, he really wanted everything to be easier in that sense, that’s why he had been so reluctant to telling his family.

"Uh, excuse me," he said to the man in the reception desk, "I have an appointment with Detective Roland."

"Do you?" the man asked incredulously.

"Uh, yes, I just called him like 15 minutes ago and…"

"We didn’t get a call for that."

"No, like, his personal number, and…"

"You called the personal number of a detective?" the guy smiled, he really didn’t believe a word Joe was saying. He seemed pretty amused.

"Yes, I met him a while ago, and…"

"Listen kid, that sounds like an interesting story, but…"

"Joe, hey!" Joe smiled when the man came out of a nearby office, he then eyed the reception guy who was pretty taken aback, he had a very funny look on his face. Joe didn’t want to be an asshole, but at the same time, he kind of wanted to, so he shrugged sorta cheekily to the man, as if saying ‘I told you’.

"Hi Detective, I hope I didn’t leave you waiting for too long."

"Oh, don’t worry, Detective Marshall has also just arrived. Actually, you’d have to work with her, because she’s in the Kidnapping Division."

"Oh, okay."

"Don’t worry, I’ll still be there supporting you. Hi Mrs. Trohman, nice to see you again."

"Hello Detective," she said with a sweet smile.

"Alright, so… Davis, give him the visitor ID, please."

The man obliged still dumbfounded. It was 100% impossible that that toddler had an actual appointment with the Detective, and that he’d gotten it through the man’s _personal phone_.

Joe waved to his mother and followed behind Detective Roland into a small meeting room.

"Here he is everyone, Joe Trohman," Detective Roland introduced him triumphantly, and Joe smiled and waved feeling pressured because of all the faith the man was putting on him, he had the guy’s reputation on his shoulders.

"The boy with the gift," said a woman unamused. Joe just assumed she was Detective Marshall, she looked a bit older than Detective Roland and she seemed very important and imposing; it didn’t seem like a good sign that she didn’t like or believe in his “gift”, "only Augustus Roland would believe in such a ridiculous thing. I don’t, I only agreed so that the would shut his mouth."

Joe shifted in his place a bit nervously, that woman was frightening. But he kind of understood where she came from: a month ago, he didn’t really believe in those things either, and thought of people like Frank as total creeps, hence the nickname he and his friends gave him. But now, he had those vision himself, he’d better believe it. She smiled knowing that she had gotten him, she was intimidating him, she was almost totally sure that they’d never see each other again. But Joe had important stuff to tell them, so even when he was almost shitting his pants, he wasn’t going anywhere.

"Come on, Marshall, he did save his friend back then."

"Ah, yeah, your fable, I’ve heard it a couple times. And you know what I think about it? I think you had something to do with it, kid."

Now, Joe expected many things, but not that comment. He immediately put his guard up and furrowed his eyebrows. He did not believe that woman had just accused him of wanting to kill Andy.

"Marshall that’s nonsense…"

"Oh, come on, Roland, do you not know how to do your job? Read the signs. Future reading? More like he was part of the plan and then chickened up, he told the other guys up to look like the hero and don’t make that face kid, I can read you like an open book."

Joe’s blood was boiling at that point, how dare she? Andy was his boyfriend, Andy was the sweetest guy he knew, he would never bring himself to hurt him in any way. He needed to prove himself to the lady right there, but he could only think of how to put in a single sentence all the swear words he knew to say to that lady. He then remembered the Frank-lesson of the day: Pressure.

That lady was testing him, she was putting his patience and gift to a test, even if she didn’t mean or know it. So he started to take deep breaths, to try and calm himself down: if he didn’t, he would probably not be able to have a vision, and Detective’s Roland reputation was on the line with him, he needed to give his best. The lady kept talking, and telling everyone how Joe was surely involved in Andy’s attack, but Joe just focused on calming down, cooling his blood and reading the future.

"I’m sorry, Marshall, but you have no evidence for that, and the other kids admitted they had worked on their own."

"Oh well, what do you know, Augustus, he probably threatened them into silence…"

"He didn’t…"

"Shut up, I know this to be true, I don’t care if you don’t want to believe it; that boy doesn’t have a 'gift', he’s just a very good liar." She turned to Joe to keep lecturing him, but Joe knew what was coming, and she was going to get notified.

"Listen kid, it will take you more than a party trick to impress me, especially when I know what you’ve done. When I’m finished with this kidnapping case, I’ll find evidence against you, just you wait."

Detective Marshall’s eyes widened and her mouth closed shut. She looked shocked. She couldn’t believe she had just heard her own words in the boy’s voice. She stared right into Joe’s eyes, and he knew that she wouldn’t say anything for a couple seconds.

"How’d you…?" he said and she went stiff again, "I don’t know how you are doing this, but just… stop! Stop already! Roland, tell him to stop!"

The room was dead silent, and all the adults stared at Joe like he was some sort of circus creature, their eyes jumped back and forth between Joe and Detective Marshall, they couldn’t believe what had just happened, nobody knew what to say.

When Joe find out they weren't going to say anything in a while, he stopped focusing on reading the future, but the second he did it he felt like his brain had unplugged from everything and then he saw everything move in front of him in a hectic way.

"Joe!" he heard Detective Roland’s voice and felt someone holding him tight, presumably Roland. **I fell?** he wondered as he was led to a chair.

As soon as he sat he grabbed his head in both hands and tried to massage it, as though it could remove the pain he was feeling. It was stingy, and at the same time, he felt like his head was in a press. So apparently, he _could_ have visions under pressure, but they were painful as fuck.

"Joe, are you okay?" asked the only adult in the room who believed in him.

"Well, I… I’m pretty dizzy, it’s never hurt this much."

"You need anything?"

"No… I’ll just wait until it stops..." he just sat there thinking of Andy’s smile, and how soft his hugs were, he was so cute and cuddly, if only he was there… He smiled to himself and when the dizziness subsided a bit, he said, "listen, I don’t know how I’m doing this either, I didn’t know this was possible until like two weeks ago, but I’m not lying, I really want to help, please let me help you."

The lady took deep breaths and the air in the office tensed up as everybody waited for her response. She then slowly took a seat and stared at Joe silently, with a very confused yet angry look in her eyes. **I’m dead** , thought Joe through his headache; that woman clearly didn’t want him there, and was probably thinking in applying everything she knew about erasing evidence to make Joe disappear in a painful way after he had apparently taken her pride and dignity with his little “party trick” demonstration.

He didn’t want her to make him leave, he wanted to work with the Police, not because he thought it was cool and he wanted to feel edgy, but because he had really important information and wanted to save those girl’s lives. He internally crossed his fingers for her to be somewhat merciful and rational with him and accepting his help.

"Alright," she said coldly after what seemed like a century, "what do you have for me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how do you like the road this episode is taking?  
> I'd love to see your coments about this story :)
> 
> Ps.: Joe does have the prettiest half-smile ever :v


End file.
